


Fullmetal Alchemist - a fan's rambling

by Asinka



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alchemy, Blogging, Character Analysis, Gen, Meta, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Theories, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-08-17 13:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16517558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asinka/pseuds/Asinka
Summary: Just trying to organize my thoughts on various aspects of the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise from theories to silly musings.Chapters (if you only want to read a particular topic)1. Fullmetal Alchemist & I2. What is Wrong with Fullmetal Alchemist (And Why It Ultimately Doesn’t Matter)3. The Legacy of Fullmetal Alchemist 20034. Father Cornello5. Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist6. State Alchemists7. Sibling relationships: Edward and Alphonse Elric8. On Ed sustaining Al’s body9. Homunculi Part I10. Homunculi Part II: exploration of humanity11. Alchemy Part I: Amestrian alchemy12. Alchemy Part II: Xingese alkahestry (ft. Scar’s brother’s alchemy)13. Philosopher’s Stone(s)14. Human Transmutation





	1. Fullmetal Alchemist & I

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter mostly contains my personal history with Fullmetal Alchemist. Feel free to skip it, if you don’t want to read this stuff.

The Fullmetal Alchemist franchise has become a huge part of my life since I saw it, which actually happened not so long ago. I didn’t grow up reading the manga, I didn’t watch FMA 03 when it was still airing, nor did I catch the release of FMA: Brotherhood in 2009. I only became interested in it after I watched a video on different magic systems in fiction by Hello Future Me on YouTube, in which alchemy from FMA:B was used as an example of a hard magic system . I decided to check out the anime only to find out that there are actually two of them, released only 5 years apart. So I did what I thought was the natural thing to do and watched FMA 03 first, then it’s movie sequel Conqueror of Shamballa, and only then did I get to FMA:B. I wasn’t planning on reading the manga at all, it just sort of happened.

I was really impressed by FMA 03. Before that the only type of anime I watched was Studio Ghibli films, which are widely regarded as cinematic masterpieces. My perception of anime on TV could be pretty much described as “loud Japanese cartoons that overuse animation tricks to save money”. And while FMA 03 was sometimes loud and didn’t necessarily abstain from using shifts in style and animation for comedic/fight scenes, it was very, very interesting. I loved it.

CoS was ok, I guess. I liked the parts with Ed on Earth, but to be honest, I couldn’t care less about the Amestrian side of the movie. But I don’t like the ending, I just don’t. I can’t put my finger on it, but it seems … off. Basically, I like the idea of Ed and Al being reunited, but not the execution.

And then I watched Brotherhood, and if I loved FMA 03, I LOVED FMA:B. I watched the whole thing in 4 days, and started reading the manga right after, which brings me precisely where I am now, writing this blog on FMA, the “canon” storyline in particularly. Just to be clear: I still love and respect the original FMA. I don’t think that not following the manga somehow makes it inferior to Brotherhood. But I don’t think I have much to say about it, either. However, when it comes to the original storyline of Fullmetal Alchemist, I think my head is ready to burst with all the thoughts and ideas, which is why I’ve decided to put them on paper.

So from the next chapter on I will be focusing on Fullmetal Alchemist manga/Brotherhood verse. However, some of the things concerning the production of Brotherhood were directly affected by the existence of its predecessor, so I will note whenever I feel a certain aspect of FMA:B was influenced by FMA 03 more than the manga. Naturally, I will be comparing FMA:B to its direct source material whenever there are discrepancies between the two, whether it’s omitting, changing or adding plotlines, character moments, etc. I also haven’t seen The Secret Star of Milos and have no interest in doing that, so it won’t be mentioned here again.

Several more things I should say, I guess.

1\. This is NOT, by any means, a literary analysis or a film critique. I don’t think that I have the necessary qualifications to do that. I’m just fascinated by this fictional universe that Hiromu Arakawa has created, so I want to explore every possible aspect of it.

2\. The works of fiction that I will be covering AND THERFORE SPOILING LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW SO BE WARNED are: Fullmetal Alchemist (manga), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood OVAs (The Blind Alchemist, Simple People, The Teacher’s Tale & The Tale of Teacher’s First Love, Yet Another Man’s Battlefield), and, to some extent, Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 anime).

3\. There are a number of things that I DON’T like about Fullmetal Alchemist, both the manga and the anime, so I won’t always be singing praises to it as if it were the greatest thing of all time. Whenever there is something I have problems with, I will mention it. In fact, the next chapter will be on all the things about the franchise that I personally have to tolerate in order to get to the good stuff.

4\. This thing will not have any structure whatsoever. Instead of dividing my blog by anime episodes or manga chapters, I will be covering different aspects of the story, which include characters, themes, the worldbuilding and whatever else comes to my mind. I don’t think there will be any publishing schedule to this either.

5\. I generally feel bad about misinforming people, which is why I will be rewatching the 2009 anime and rereading the manga while writing this, but even that doesn’t guarantee that I won’t have my facts mixed up, so if you notice any factual mistakes, call me out on them.

5\. Don’t take this too close to your heart ;) Seriously, this is just mostly a stream of consciousness from me, which means that I can and will bring up the most random things about Fullmetal Alchemist, and not all of them will be all business, I can assure you.

6\. If you decide to leave a comment, please be polite. I will not be crying myself to sleep over some random Internet troll, of course, but still.

That’s it for chapter one. Now let’s see what my problems with Brotherhood (and the manga) are and why I ignore them.


	2. What is Wrong with Fullmetal Alchemist (And Why It Ultimately Doesn’t Matter)

Fullmetal Alchemist is a beautiful mess, especially the anime adaptation. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the #1 anime on IMDB and MyAnimeList, but it’s nowhere near being perfect. As I said before, there are a number of things in it I don’t find particularly enjoyable; some of them are quite unpleasant, actually. Without further ado, let’s see what aspects of FMA usually somewhat mar my watching/reading experience. 

1\. The humor. This is probably the largest downside of FMA for me. Humor is a very, very subjective thing: what one person finds hilarious, another might consider unfunny or even offensive. For FMA, this category includes, in no particular order:

a) The short jokes (mostly). Even though they are present in both the manga and the anime, I mostly dislike them in Brotherhood, because I rarely find them funny. Unlike in the manga, where the point of the short jokes was Ed’s hilarious exaggeration of anything resembling the word “little”, in Brotherhood he’s just shouting “I’m not little!!!!!”, which is not as funny. 

b) The running gag of mistaking Al for the Fullmetal Alchemist, for the same reasons as the short jokes. Also, they missed a great opportunity to subvert it when Kimblee meets the Elrics in Fort Briggs. If they’d done that, I would probably give it a pass.

c) Winry beating up Ed, played for laughs. This is something I’m 100% not OK with. If it was a guy throwing wrenches at a girl for whatever reason, people would call it abuse, but since it’s the other way around, I guess it’s called “humor” now? 

d) Izumi vomiting blood, played for laughs. The woman has serious health issues, how is that funny? 

e) Poorly placed comedic cartoon shifts. Adding comic relief after a serious scene is one thing, but slapping one right in the middle of an important conversation or a fight is really not necessary. I’m not talking about sarcastic quips here, which I personally wouldn’t mind; no, Brotherhood sometimes adds slapstick in serious scenes, which messes up the tone quite a lot.

2\. Overusing stylistic changes. OK, this one is very easy to explain: I love the way Brotherhood looks. It may not be a landscape porn like Violet Evergarden, but the production value is really, really high, which is why whenever the characters turn from their normal designs to all these crazy cartoon forms, I feel sad. 

3\. The first episode of Brotherhood. As far as first episodes go, it’s really not a great one. It throws a gazillion characters at the viewer all at once instead of, you know, introducing them naturally; it spoils some things about the show’s plot; it makes episode 3, which was supposed to be the first episode, pretty much pointless.

4\. The first quarter of the show. Two things I want to say here. First, I don’t really think these episodes are too rushed, per se, it’s the stuff they are concentrating on (too much comic relief) that I don’t like. This and my problem with episode 1 tie into thing number two: omitting the Youswell incident, which seems unimportant at first, but the town becomes quite plot-relevant later, so it’s a shame it’s not in the story. See, if the creators toned down the comic relief in the beginning of the show and scratched that first episode, they would have time for Youswell and probably some of the other stuff that had to be omitted, even if they only had a limited number of episodes to cover the part of the plot that had been animated before (which may or may not have been the case). 

5\. Wonky worlbuilding. Sometimes (read: quite often) the mechanics of the Fullmetal Alchemist fictional universe go against its own rules. And I’m not talking about shonen physics that allows you to fall from roofs without breaking anything or flipping over a giant Homunculus without breaking a sweat - those things are within artistic license. Although now that I mention it, it is pretty odd to have them in a world that looks like it should be working according to regular physics, but I don’t really mind. What I’m talking about is things like alkahestry, Pride, unrealistically sharp eyesight, etc. I am planning on discussing these topics in depth once I’ve had enough factual information to back up my points.

These are the problems I have mostly with Brotherhood, but some of them stem from the manga, so both are at fault. And now comes the part where I explain why these don’t stop me from watching, rewatching and loving Fullmetal Alchemist the way I do.

1\. The humor. It’s simple, really – I have yet to find anything in fiction where the jokes would work for me 10 times out of 10, so I don’t have some Comedy Gold standard for Fullmetal Alchemist. Besides, the situation with humor in general is not as bad as it may seem. For example, the short jokes still serve a purpose, adding to Ed’s character as a very prideful guy, so I might give them a pass. Besides, there was a couple of times when they actually were funny, like when Pinako says that Ed “has grown smaller”. This show also has two really likeable comic relief characters, Alex Armstrong and Maes Hughes, and that raises the overall humor bar to “somewhat decent” to me.

2\. Overusing stylistic changes. Don’t ask me why, but one day I just decided to empirically prove my hypothesis that says “the farther the episode of Brotherhood is on the episodes list, the fewer instances of comedic cartoon shifts it’s likely to have”. I divided Brotherhood into three parts: episodes 1-21, episodes 22-32 and episodes 33-64. Then I ran a randomizer that selected numbers 12, 37 and 56. After that I dutifully watched episodes 12, 37 and 56 and counted the number of comedic cartoon shifts in each of them. The results were: 30 for ep. 12, 11 for ep. 37 and 1 for ep. 56. Though the methodology of counting the aforementioned shifts still requires some work, I do think that my hypothesis was successfully proven. Or in other words, there’s less cartoon shifts as you keep watching, which is a good thing. This also applies to Winry the Murderous Mechanic and Izumi the Bloodvomiting Housewife: at least there are fewer of those moments as the story continues.

3\. The first episode and 4. The first quarter of the show. While these episodes feel subpar compared to the rest of the show, they do fulfill their role of establishing the universe and characters. They certainly were interesting enough for me to keep watching the show, so they still work. 

5\. Wonky worldbuilding. This is not really a justification, but the problems with worldbuilding are really interesting things to examine. It’s fascinating to me to try and find an in-universe explanation for them, and I feel like I will have a lot of fun doing that. 

These are my problems with Fullmetal Alchemist and the reasons why I don’t pay (much) attention to them. Hope you didn’t fall asleep or anything while reading this, though if you did, at least you had a nap.


	3. The Legacy of Fullmetal Alchemist 2003

I was planning on analyzing Fullmetal Alchemist (2009) and the manga without mentioning Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), but then realized that it would not be possible. I may not have been interested in this franchise back then, but I know that FMA 03 was a huge success both in Japan and worldwide. So by the time when the production of Brotherhood started, it already had not one, but two established fan bases: people who loved the manga and wanted to see a more faithful adaptation, and people who loved the first anime and were curious about the second one. I presume there were also a lot of people who belonged to both of these fan bases. This is the reason why Brotherhood is the adaptation of not only the manga, but FMA 03, too, and here are some examples of that.

1\. The character of Al. Hopefully, someday I’ll get to a full chapter on Alphonse Elric, but even now I can see how Brotherhood!Al is a mix of the characters from the manga and FMA 03. His voice in Brotherhood is a direct transition from OG, which I wholeheartedly approve of. I mean, we don’t know how his voice is supposed to sound in the manga, right? Well, the creators of the first anime decided to give him a very tender voice that would be in stark contrast to both his hulking suit of armor and his brother’s voice. (Side note: I’ve read that Hiromu Arakawa was directly involved in the creation of FMA 03. Could it have been her idea, or it is on the showrunners that Al’s voice sounds the way it does?) It worked for that version very well, because FMA 03 changed Al’s personality from the manga, significantly downplaying his “younger brother that acts as the older brother” side and ramping up to 11 his “cute innocent cat lover” part. Brotherhood follows the manga more closely, so Al gets to act more mature than his OG counterpart, but he still has the same tender voice, and acts more like a child more than he did in the manga, which places him in the middle between badass manga!Al and softie Al from FMA 03.

2\. The character of Maes Hughes. This was a surprise for me, since I really thought that the reason Hughes is so goofy in Brotherhood is because the manga can barely go two pages without some slapstick, but it turns out his over-the-top personality in FMA:B stems from his FMA 03 version. Compare the scenes Hughes is introduced in. In the manga it’s chapter 6, The Right Hand of Destruction. Hughes is on the crime scene in the Tuckers house and acts very seriously; we don’t get to see his funny side right away. In FMA 03 Hughes is first seen in episode 5 "The Man with the Mechanical Arm" gushing over his pregnant wife to Mustang, but it’s quickly shown that it’s also a deception tactics used by the two so that people wouldn’t have interest in listening in on their conversation. So we see his funny side first, and his serious side later. Brotherhood’s Hughes is introduced in episode 1 “The Fullmetal Alchemist”. This fact alone shows that the creators knew how beloved already he was, so they included him into the list of fan favorites to appear in episode 1. His introduction happens in a purely comedic scene, and only later in the episode we see his more serious side. So yeah, just like with Al, Brotherhood downplayed his seriousness a little and made him more comical.

3\. Episode 1. It’s pretty obvious that episode 1of Brotherhood is designed for people who have seen the first anime. It includes Ed, Al, Mustang, Armstrong, Hawkeye, the Hughes family, Bradley, even Kimblee – several of the most popular characters from both the manga and FMA 03. 

4\. Episode 2 "The First Day". This is a prominent example of Brotherhood following the first anime rather than its primary source material, since Pinako and Winry are only introduced in Chapter 9 “A Home with a Family Waiting” of the manga, and the transmutation attempt and Ed’s first trip to the Gate aren’t shown fully until Chapter 23 “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”. But FMA 03 decided to show the backstory in episode 3, and Brotherhood followed suit, instead of holding off the full story of the brothers like the manga did.

5\. Armstrong and Sig Curtis muscle bonding. This is more of a guess, but I think that having the scene with these two of “bonding through muscle” during their battle with Sloth has as much to do with FMA 03 as with the manga. This unusual ,er, ritual was actually in the manga in Chapter 28 “The Fool’s Courage” when Bradley followed Ed from the South City to learn more about Izumi, so he invited himself to the Curtis’s house, where the scene takes place. Since Ed’s trip to South City was cut from Brotherhood, they couldn’t include the scene where it belonged in the original timeline of the manga. But FMA 03 used the scene of bonding, albeit in a different manner, and I suspect that it was pretty popular. This is why I think Brotherhood’s creators decided to include it in the show, even if they had to do it much later. It’s only all speculation, though, I have nothing to back this up.

6\. The Tucker’s hair color. They are both blond in the manga, but have brown hair in both FMA 03 and FMA:B.

7\. Hohenheim and Trisha being married. It wasn't the case in the manga, but are legally married in both anime versions. I wasn't sure about including this one because there's no wedding ring on Trisha's hand in FMA 2003's episode 3 "Mother", but I rewatched it and noticed that in the very same episode we see letters addressed to one Hohenheim Elric, so Elric is Trisha's last name by marriage. In Brotherhood when Father asks Ed and Al why their last name is Elric and not Hohenheim, Ed answers that it's Trisha's maiden name. After I read the manga where in the same scene Ed admits that his parents weren't legally married I thought that it maybe it was a translation error, but in episode 36 "Family Portrait" Trisha has a wedding ring, so it was a deliberate change.

8\. Hm, I thought there would be more, but so far I can’t think of anything else. I guess I could add here that Romi Park and Rie Kugimiya reprised their roles as Ed and Al respectively for Brotherhood, and for the American dub Funimation tried to cast as many voice actors from FMA 03’s dub as possible, and even gave the role of young Hohenheim to Aaron Dismuke, who couldn’t voice Al anymore because his voice broke.

9\. Bonus: Dante, the main villain in FMA 03, makes a cameo in Brotherhood in episode 58 “Sacrifices”.

Apart from things from FMA 03 that the creators of Brotherhood included on purpose, there is also an opinion that the first episodes of Brotherhood are “rushed”, which also stems from FMA’s existence – they usually feel like that when compared to FMA 03’s much slower pacing. Let’s consider the Nina incident as an example. If you compare episode 4 "An Alchemist's Anguish" to Chapter 5 “The Alchemist’s Suffering”, you will see that this episode barely omits anything from the chapter, and even adds stuff like Ed kicking Tuckers State Alchemist watch. In FMA 03, however, Nina appears in several episodes. So no, when it comes to single episodes, they are not completely rushed; they just feel like they are to those who watched FMA 03 first while people who read the manga or only watched Brotherhood would hardly think that these episodes are, I don’t know, incomplete. However, if we take the entirety of episodes 1-14 (probably 15), then yes, cutting out two whole chapters when one of them is plot relevant and the other is used to introduce several key characters, as well as details like Lust being on the same train as Ed, Al and Armstrong can be defined as rushing through the plot to get to the new stuff.


	4. Father Cornello

Father Cornello is a minor character who appears in two chapters of the manga and only one episode of Brotherhood. Still, there are several differences in his portrayal in the two media. 

In both versions we hear about Father Cornello before seeing the person himself. He uses the town radio to broadcast his sermons to the population of Liore. When Ed and Al admit that they have never heard of him, the townsfolk starts to talk about his miracles. This is where Rose appears, and her story is used as an example of the good things Cornello does for the town: he was the one who gave Rose hope that her dead fiancé can be resurrected. We then see Cornello interact with Rose, telling her that he will eventually bring her fiancé back, but the time hasn’t come yet. And here we have our first difference between manga and anime portrayal, because this scene is omitted from Brotherhood – for timesaving reasons, I assume.

Then comes the scene in which Cornello shows his “miracles” and we get our first instance of unrealistically sharp eyesight from Ed: he spots the Philosopher’s Stone in the ring. Or at least, that’s what it looks like: we get a close up of the Stone, then Ed says “we found it”, so it’s easy to assume that Ed sees it. However, the stone is round, so I doubt it can shine as brightly as if it had bezels, and there’s no way Ed or Al can actually see it from that far away. For these reasons I prefer to think that Ed didn’t really see the Stone, but rather came to the conclusion that it had to be on Cornello’s hand, and what better way to ensure that your stone stays on your hand at all times than to have it embedded in a ring? It’s not a far call: the reason Ed and Al came to Liore in the first place was to examine the rumors of a Philosopher’s Stone, but apparently, they didn’t know who possessed it. Now that they saw Cornello’s “miracles” in action, they knew who they were looking for, and during their confrontation in the temple they got their confirmation when they actually saw the Stone. 

OK, back to Father Cornello. In both versions, he orders one of his men to off the Elrics; of course, the brothers overpower his henchmen, or the story would end right there. Next comes the scene in which we learn about Ed’s clap alchemy and automail. The manga has more of Cornello in this particular scene, because Ed and Al’s first plan of exposing the truth about his “miracles” was to make him reveal his secret to Rose, who would tell it to the rest of the town. This plan fails, so they come up with the second plan of using the broadcasting equipment. Brotherhood is more cost effective here and mashes two confessions into one. This decision leads to two different displays of Cornello’s skills of persuasion. In the manga when the brothers reveal that Rose has heard all his plans, he is easily able to sway her to his side once again by saying that yes, he doesn’t do miracles, but he still can return her fiancé with the help of the Philosopher’s Stone. In Brotherhood Cornello doesn’t admit to performing alchemy right away, but insists that he is a miracle worker and demands that Rose shoots the Fullmetal Alchemist. Basically, in the manga we see his ability to adapt to different circumstances; in Brotherhood we see the extent of control he has over Rose. 

And then Cornello lets out the chimera. Now, in the manga I think that if he didn’t do that, he might have had a chance at winning. While he doesn’t really have Rose’s trust anymore, he has convinced her that he is still able to help, therefore, they can strike a deal: she keeps her knowledge to herself, he resurrects her fiancé. And even if she doesn’t agree, one person is not enough to convince all of his followers to turn away from him, as Cornello himself says to Ed in the broadcast scene. In Brotherhood, however, his letting out the chimera probably makes more sense, since he still doesn’t drop the “emissary of the Sun God” act and proclaims that this is the will of Leto.

In both cases the outcome is the same: Cornello’s desire to get rid of the Elrics at all costs becomes his downfall. Ed survives the chimera attack, he and Al burst through the temple workers like no big deal, and Rose isn’t on his side anymore. After that Cornello becomes reckless, not even noticing that Ed has set him up and his second confession (first in Brotherhood) is broadcast to everyone in town. So what is this guy’s goal? He wants to take over the country, apparently. Of course, he would never pull that off, but points for trying. 

Anyway, we get a direct confrontation between Ed and Cornello, and the Stone is exhausted, causing a rebound. At this point Brotherhood adds a very, very stupid scene: for some reason the rebound turns Cornello into a giant, then Ed punches him with a stone fist, and only then the Stone breaks. And here we have another significant difference in Cornello’s portrayal. In Brotherhood the moment the Stone is exhausted he becomes a pathetic man who crawls away from Ed and we only see him at the end of the episode. In the manga, however, he only acts like he doesn’t know what to do now while still planning to kill Ed. Except Edward is so pissed off at this point that he almost squashes Cornello with the stone fist, destroying the temple with the sheer force of the transmutation. While I like Cornello _pretending_ to be pathetic rather than _being_ pathetic, I must say that the manga is kind of abrupt with what happens next: we see Cornello near the stone fist, and the next panel has Ed and Al talking about failing to get the real Philosopher’s Stone again. But…where did Cornello go? He was determined to stab Ed a minute ago, why isn’t he using the distraction now? I guess, he also crawled away then, but we don’t get to see it. 

The last we see of Cornello is his encounter with Lust and Gluttony. We learn that they were the ones who gave him the Stone, he gets mocked once again, and then Lust kills him.

For the first villain in the series, Father Cornello is ok. In the manga he served two main purposes: 1) he and his men represent the corruption of church, and while the story doesn’t really go in this particular direction, it’s our first glance on a much broader theme of the corruption of power; 2) the whole incident in Liore is about a brief exposition of Ed and Al’s past and their goal of getting their bodies back, and all of Cornello’s actions lead to some revelation about our main characters: when his man shoots Al on his order, we learn that the suit of armor is hollow; when he releases the chimera we learn that Ed has two prosthetic limb; he tells us about Ed becoming a State alchemist at the age of 12 and what human transmutation is, and his reaction to clap alchemy gives us a clue that it’s an unusual skill, even if we don’t know how unusual it really is. In Brotherhood, however, his exposition part is given to Isaac McDougal in episode 1, which diminishes his role in the series.

Some thoughts on the Homunculi giving Cornello an imperfect Stone. The reason they were in Liore was to carve a crest of blood for the giant transmutation circle, but how do his ambitions fall into the plan? Lust says that they wanted him “to cause a little bit of chaos in the region” – that’s the crest of blood, yes. But Cornello says he wants to take over the country within a few years. Considering that the transmutation circle is supposed to be completed in less than a year, they would have to make sure that Cornello starts his coup in Liore pretty soon. I guess they were planning to “persuade” him to make his move some time later, but Ed’s interference made them change their strategy and use Envy disguised as Cornello to start the riots. 

I also found an interesting question oh Reddit: why doesn’t Cornello need a transmutation circle? We know that the stone he has is an imperfect Philosopher’s Stone; it’s not really a fake, but it’s not as powerful as Hohenheim and the Homunculi. Now, since I’ve only started rewatching and rereading FMA, I can’t remember all instances of Philosopher’s Stones being used, but let’s examine some. The Homunculi in a way are Stones, so is Hohenheim, therefore they don’t count. Ed and Al do not need circles, Kimbley has arrays tattooed on his palms; it’s hard to tell from their example whether a circle is needed. There is also doctor Marcoh who used his Stone to heal the people in the village where he was hiding. None of the villagers interviewed by Ed and Armstrong seem to remember any arrays being used, only the glow from the transmutation. If Marcoh had a concealed circle, Cornello not using any arrays is a plot hole; if he didn’t, then we can probably assume that one of the properties of the Philosopher’s Stone is that it doesn’t require a circle. That, however, contradicts Father’s statement that _every_ transmutation needs a circle. So for now I’ll think of it as a plot hole


	5. Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist

Another minor antagonist who appears in one chapter and one episode. Also probably one of the most hated characters in anime history, although my very scarce knowledge of anime makes it hard to gauge exactly how hated he is.

Just like it was with Cornello, we learn about Tucker before actually meeting the man. Edward asks the Colonel to give him some information on bio-alchemy, and Mustang suggests that the Elrics pay a visit to Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist, who got his license two years prior for creating a talking chimera. From Mustangs words alone we see that there is something wrong with the guy, since the chimera he created only spoke one phrase – “I want to die” – and eventually starved itself to death. At this point Brotherhood omits Ed’s line from the manga “Well, anyway, let’s go meet him and see what kind of person he is”. Of course, it was probably cut because in the manga the Elrics and the Colonel talk about Tucker in Mustang’s office whereas in Brotherhood the same dialogue takes place in Mustang’s car on their way to the Tuckers. Anyway, this line indicates that Ed isn’t very trusting of the man from the very beginning.

In Brotherhood we get an added moment of Edward being impressed by the Tucker’s residence. Later in the episode Tucker says that before he got his State Alchemist certification, their family was very poor, and that is the reason why his wife left. From this we can conclude that Tucker used his research money to acquire the house. It sort of concurs to Ed using his money for not strictly research related purposes later in the series, so I don’t think it contradicts anything we know about the policy towards State Alchemist using their funds – apparently, they can do whatever with the money they get from the state. None of it was in the manga, though.

Tucker is pretty hospitable towards his guests and agrees to help them, but makes Ed reveal the truth about his prosthetics in return. To be honest, I’m not really sure why they tell him what actually happened and then ask him to keep quiet instead of giving the usual “lost my arm and leg during the Eastern rebellion” drill. I mean, Tucker asked Ed why he is interested in biological transmutations, not why he doesn’t have an arm. Om meta level I know that it’s needed for the later “we are the same” scene, but in-universe Edward was being waay too honest in this particular case.

Tucker shows Ed and Al his library, and Ed immediately starts reading. Tucker comments on his amazing ability to concentrate, and then says this line: “I guess geniuses really do exist”. Is he jealous of Ed’s abilities? Yep, he totally is. In the additional chapter “Beginning of a Long Journey” that Arakawa released last year we see Tucker come to the Eastern Command to get his State Alchemist exam results. As he walks away without the license, he hears rumors about a 12 year old passing the exam when he couldn’t. When he gets home, he is greeted by his wife and Nina, and we learn that this wasn’t even his first attempt. His wife is being very supportive and among other things she says “if you need anything, just tell me”, and then Tucker repeats to himself “anything?” I will return to this later.

So, while Ed and Al conduct their research in the library and bond with Nina, Tucker is becoming increasingly more desperate to get some results for his assessment. In Brotherhood this is where we learn that the Tuckers used to be poor.

And now we get to that scene. Ed and Al find Tucker in his lab with the newest talking chimera he created. The words it uses give Edward a clue the chimera from two years ago was partly made of Tucker’s missing wife, and the new one is made of Nina and the family’s dog Alexander. Tucker’s response is pretty similar in both versions. He says that scientific progress has always been possible because of experimenting on humans. He also invokes the “we are not so different” trope, saying that Edward of all people should understand him, since the brothers’ current state is the result of Ed himself “playing around with human lives” just because he could.

Tucker is apprehended and put under custody in his own house. He is killed by Scar at the end of the chapter/episode.

There is a difference between anime and manga concerning Tucker’s motivation. In Brotherhood he is driven in equal measure by his desire to experiment on humans and by wanting to keep his position as a State Alchemist so that he would never be poor again. In the manga the money issue is a throwaway line: Tucker does mention that he will not have to worry about research funding now that he has something to present during his assessment, but it wasn’t a primary motivation for him. Besides, in the last year’s chapter I don’t see any signs of extreme poverty in the Tuckers’ house, from which I conclude that Arakawa didn’t intend to make money issue his motivation for what he does to Nina and Alexander. The reason for his actions lies in his poor abilities as an alchemist combined with his crazy devotion to the possibilities of science. We know that Tucker tried to pass the exam several times before succeeding; then on his very first annual assessment he got a warning that unless he does something useful, his license will be revoked. In both cases he was reminded of what a bad alchemist he is, when he himself thinks that he is a true scientist who shouldn’t stop at anything if it means progress. I don’t think he was messing with Edward during their confrontation; he genuinely believes that his actions are justified. His wife did say she would provide anything for his research, didn’t she? Well, in his opinion, it meant literally anything. Shou Tucker is a representation of how far people are willing to go in order to get what they want, and a general warning of the dangers of science.

I also have a theory regarding Tucker becoming a State Alchemist, although I admit it kind of shaky and hardly holds up under scrutiny. We learn later in the series that there are far more advanced human/animal chimeras in the military, and it looks like they’d even existed before Tucker started his experiments. So why was he given the title even though the military doesn’t need his research on chimeras and he is a bad alchemist in general? I think that the answer is the true goal of the State Alchemist program – it was designed to gather potential sacrifices for the countrywide transmutation circle. From what we see in Chapter 5/episode 4 I have no doubts that Shou Tucker would have no qualms about performing human transmutation if he was ordered to. Although, to be honest, the Homunculi are indifferent to his death – when they learn about it, Lust waves him off as “unimportant”. Also, in Brotherhood when he says “I won’t have to worry about keeping my license” Ed kicks his watch and replies there’s no way Tucker will stay a State Alchemist after what he’s done; and while the manga doesn’t have a scene like that, in the next chapter Hawkeye also mentions that his certification was supposed to be revoked. But I still believe that until the Nina incident Shou Tucker was kept in the program just in case. He was, for a lack of a better word, amoral enough to try human transmutation. If he somehow managed to survive that, the Homunculi would have one more sacrifice; but he wasn’t irreplaceable, so if he didn’t survive the transmutation, it wouldn’t be a big loss. This is also why they wouldn’t have a problem with his license being taken away because of his crimes – he is just a spare and is not that crucial to their plans to try and cover him up. Hm, so he thought human lives are expendable when it comes to science, but is also expendable himself? You know, I’ll hold on to this headcanon.


	6. State Alchemists

The State Alchemist program is a very curious thing, to me at least. While we have a bunch of characters who hold the title, including our protagonist Edward Elric and tritagonist Roy Mustang, I wouldn’t say we know much about the program itself. That is why I want to look at the State Alchemists bearing one particular phrase in mind. In Chapter 56 “The Lion of the Round Table”/episode 29 “Struggles of the Fool” Edward tries to resign from being a State Alchemist because he realizes that the whole program is designed to select human sacrifices. At this point he doesn’t know about the countrywide transmutation circle yet, but being called “an important sacrifice” and hearing Bradley say he, Al and Mustang are “valuable resources” lead him to this conclusion. Now, normally I don’t consider a character’s theory/hypothesis true unless it’s either proven by later events or confirmed by at least one other character. However, if we look at the State Alchemist program with this bit of information in mind, it does seem to be confirmed in hindsight. Let’s have a look at different aspects of the Amestris State Alchemist program and see why I think Ed’s guess is right.

#### When was the State Alchemist program launched?

Amestris as a country exists for over 400 years. We don’t know what it used to be like a couple of centuries earlier, but we do learn from Bradley in Chapter 29 “The Eye of the King”/episode 14 “Those Who Lurk Underground” that he is 60 years old. In Chapter 53 “Signpost of the Soul”/episode 26 “Reunion” we also see that he was made Fuhrer somewhere in his twenties, so the current political regime has existed for at least 30-40 years; possibly more, considering that when Ed was telling Ling about Amestris’s alchemy, he said that the country became that militarized when the current Fuhrer came to power, suggesting there had been other people of the same title before King Bradley. Does that mean that the State Alchemist program was launched several decades ago, too? It could be, but I think that it’s actually pretty recent. In Chapter 7 “After the Rain” when Mustang explains about State Alchemists’ role in the Ishvalan War of Extermination he says a sentence that wasn’t included in the anime: that it was a good opportunity to test their suitability for war. It could mean two things: 1) the program existed long before the war, but the State Alchemists were never involved in the conflicts Amestris has always had with its neighbors; 2) the program was launched only some time prior to the Ishvalan war and was immediately tested on the battlefield. I think the second option is more plausible simply because it’s hard for me to imagine that the government had such a weapon at their disposal and never used it until Ishval. It also explains why the population of Amestris is so hostile towards State Alchemists: if my guess is true, then the Ishvalan war is not just the most recent thing that State Alchemists are notorious for, it’s probably the only thing that people know about them. Of course, the privileges and the money thrown their way don’t help. 

Speaking of money, I believe the research funding system for State Alchemists also proves that the program is quite recent – considering how much money all the constant border conflicts must cost, keeping an enormous paycheck for all the State Alchemists would not be possible for a long time. Unless, of course, Ed’s theory is right, in which case it doesn’t even need to last for too long. In fact, if we accept the fact that the State Alchemist program is a selection process for human sacrifices, pretty much everything about it that doesn’t make sense becomes quite reasonable, like

#### Ed’s recruitment to the military

At the beginning of the manga/anime Ed being the youngest State Alchemist ever seems like simply a testament to his alchemic abilities in general and the highly unusual gift of clapping alchemy he has. Edward was accepted to the program at the age of 12; obviously, it wasn’t a normal case, that’s why the Fuhrer himself visited the practical part of his exam, as seen in Chapter 24 “Fullmetal Alchemist”/episode 2 “The First Day”. But the manga shows that Bradley had to overrule some of the members of the exam commission whose main objection was Ed’s age. His arguments were that a) age is irrelevant as long as the candidate has the talent and b) they’d better let Ed become part of the military before some other organization (e.g. the anti-government groups like the Blue Band in Chapter 4) recruits him. Those are pretty legit reasons, but if Ed is right, then Bradley being so adamant about making him a State Alchemist has another explanation. As we all know very well, King Bradley is actually a Homunculus called Wrath. I don’t know how much information Father divulges to the other Homunculi, but if he ever told them that the distinctive feature of a person who survived an attempt at performing human transmutation is not needing a circle for transmutations, then as soon as Bradley saw Ed’s alchemy in action he knew that the boy is not just a suitable candidate, but their first actual sacrifice. This is why in Chapter 6 Lust says that they can’t do anything to Ed because he is a sacrifice – they have known it for three years by now.

If we put everything together, this is the picture we get. The countrywide transmutation circle took several hundred years to complete for several reasons that I hopefully will discuss when I get to that topic. The five human sacrifices are the last step, so until recently there wasn’t really the need to start gathering them. But as soon as the Homunculi saw that almost all the conditions for a successful transmutation have been met, they needed something that would allow them to move to the final stage of the plan and gather the sacrifices for the Promised Day. But how do you learn that someone has performed or will be able to perform human transmutation? This is where the program comes into play. State Alchemists get enormous privileges – that would attract people who are greedy and therefore would be willing to perform human transmutation for some monetary reward. But the exam is very hard and includes written test, psychological evaluation and possibly the most important part – practical demonstration of an alchemist’s abilities. This is needed to recruit people who would not only have the will but also the talent to perform such a complicated transmutation. Finally, State Alchemists were sent to Ishvalan war soon after the program was launched to test their nerve (and also to accelerate the creation of another crest of blood for the circle). Overall I think that the title of the State Alchemist has existed for 15-20 years before the events of FMA; this amount of time would be enough to recruit a decent number of talented alchemists and see if there are suitable candidates among them without stretching the government’s financial resources too thin, rendering it unable to maintain the program. 

One more curious thing: if I remember correctly, in Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 only one person was allowed to become a State Alchemist per year. It actually creates a plothole because in one of the episodes we see a whole dining room filled with State Alchemists, which would hardly be possible with this kind of selection process. However, I don’t think that’s the case in manga/Brotherhood for two reasons. One, no one ever says that only one alchemist gets a license each year. I believe the situation in manga/BH is similar to the Hunter exams in Hunter x Hunter: as long as you pass all the parts of the exam, you get your certification, so it’s possible to have several State Alchemists that got their licenses the same year. Reason number two directly relates to the theory I’m trying to prove: it would be counterintuitive to allow only one person from all the contestants to become a State Alchemist because the Homunculi need as many talented alchemists as possible to be under their supervision.

I think that’s all the arguments I have for the “State Alchemist program is a selection process for human sacrifices” theory. There are some other things to discuss, though. 

#### Different types of State Alchemists

I can’t say it with 100% certainty, but it seems to me that there are several divisions within State Alchemists as a military unit. We have, for example, Mustang and Armstrong, who are full-fledged military officers obligated to wear uniforms at work. We also have Shou Tucker who from the looks of it doesn’t even have a work place at the Eastern command and conducts his research at home and doesn’t wear uniform at all. And then we have Edward, who is sort of in-between: he doesn’t wear uniform but goes on military missions for Mustang, who is his commanding officer. And yes, while many fanfic writers seem to be of opinion that Edward refuses to wear the Amestrian blue and gets away with it, I personally believe that he simply doesn’t have to. It’s quite possible then that there are actually only two types of State Alchemists, the ones that are in the military like Mustang and the ones that are with the military like Shou Tucker; Ed is actually in the second group and the reasons why he works under Roy Mustang are a) the Colonel was the one who discovered the Elrics in the first place, which was an added bonus to his own career prospects so he wants to keep Ed under his command and b) they need to hide the truth about Ed’s automail and if he worked under anyone else it would be problematic, while the Colonel helps maintain the story about “losing an arm and a leg during the Eastern rebellion” because Ed is a valuable asset to his team. 

This is why Armstrong is a Major and Mustang is a Colonel – they are legit military officers. Ed and Tucker, on the other hand, have rank equivalent to Major, but are not actual officers. I think you don’t just become a soldier as soon as you get your certification; quite possible that there is a separate process of transferring from more civilian-like State Alchemist to fully employed military personnel. Or, this is just a thought, the reason why Armstrong, Mustang and a bunch of other State Alchemists wear uniforms is because they participated in the Ishvalan War and that was their transition to military. Ed and Tucker became State Alchemists after the war, so they don’t wear uniforms; if there was an actual conscription for all State Alchemists like during the Ishvalan war, they would probably be put into uniforms, too.

Actually, scratch that last part. Ganymeme here has pointed out that it depends on whether you have been enlisted before getting your certification, and I agree with that. In Chapter 58 "The Footsteps of Ruins"/30 "The Ishvalan War of Extermination" we see Roy Mustang visit his alchemy teacher Berthold Hawkeye in full uniform right after becoming a soldier. I always assumed that it was after Roy became a State Alchemist, which shows how "attentive" I really am when watching/reading something for the first time. Their conversation and a later scene with Riza suggests that Roy doesn't know flame alchemy yet, even though it has to have been the thing that got him his certification. So he definitely became a soldier first, and a State Alchemist after some time. It's also proven by the fact that his uniform in this scene doesn't have that single star that indicates the rank of Major.

Also, here is an interesting thought: what if Roy was in the very first wave of State Alchemists? In the same scene when Master Hawkeye scolds him for becoming a soldier Mustang answers that their country is under constant military threat from their neighbors and that alchemy can change that. Is it possible that the year Roy Mustang graduated from the military academy is the same year the State Alchemist program was announced? That would explain his line about alchemy being used for military purposes - it had never been done before because the position of a State Alchemist simply did not exist yet.

#### Annual Assessment

I also want take a look at the State Alchemists’ assessment. In both manga and Brotherhood Havoc informs Tucker that the assessment day is coming up without mentioning any specific time period when it will happen. Brotherhood never returns to this particular topic, but it does come up twice more in the manga, both in relation to Edward: in Vol.3 slide story “The Military Festival” and in Chapter 26 “To Meet the Master”. In the slide story Ed is mentioned to be “in town for assessment”, which must mean East City since that’s where Mustang & Co were located before their transfer to Central Command. We also know that it happens a year prior to the events of the manga, because before the duel between Ed and Mustang begins, Hughes announces that it’s his daughter’s second birthday. In Chapter 26 Ed realizes that he totally forgot about the whole thing and goes to South City; there he meets Fuhrer Bradley who passes him without actual assessment because Ed is so very special (well, he is). All of this got me thinking: what are the rules for State Alchemist assessment? Judging from Tucker’s and Ed’s examples, there isn’t a set date or period during which all State Alchemists present their annual research results. If I remember the official timeline correctly, the Liore incident happens in spring 1914, and Ed and Al’s trip to Dublith falls on summer 1914. We know that Ed got his license somewhere in the end of September – beginning of October 1911, so the assessment date doesn’t coincide with the date on which an alchemist gets his/her certification. Is it possible that it varies depending on which year you become a State Alchemist? It’s probably not held at the same date each year, too – in the slide story Ed’s assessment is before Elicia’s birthday, in the main story it’s after the birthday, although both of these dates could fall within a short period like couple of weeks or a month. Also, we don’t know how much Ed is overdue with his assessment – maybe it actually was scheduled to the same date in 1914 as it was in 1913, but he was so wrapped up in everything that was going on that didn’t even notice that until his trip to Dublith.

Also, Wikia page on Alchemists says that military alchemists like Mustang don’t have to present their research results at all. I can’t confirm or deny that because Mustang’s assessment never comes up in either manga or Brotherhood.

#### State Alchemy rules

In Chapter 24 when Mustang talks with Ed after the exam he mentions three rules that all State Alchemists must obey:

1) Do not create humans.

2) Do not create gold.

3) Swear absolute loyalty to the military.

The second and third rules are pretty simple and hardly need any additional explanation.

The first rule actually seems to contradict the real goal of the State Alchemist program – why would the government prohibit creating humans if they want alchemists who performed human transmutation? However, later we learn two things. One, that the rule exists so that State Alchemists don’t do what the government itself has been doing for who knows how long – transmuting humanoid dummies to be infused with Philosopher’s Stones. Two, that human transmutation has nothing to do with resurrection. You can’t create a human through human transmutation; it sounds paradoxical, but it’s true. So the rule does not apply to human transmutation at all, only to the dummy aspect. And we know that the dummies are not the result of human transmutation because if they were, that would also mean that the government already has their sacrifices in spades (unless all the attempts were unsuccessful and none of the alchemists survived the transmutation) and also because they do not look like the bodies you get as the result of human transmutation. In fact, they don’t even have human flesh: their blood is green, which is technically not impossible as red is not the only color blood can be, but it’s definitely uncharacteristic of an actual human body. 

I think that’s all I wanted to say on the topic of State Alchemists. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, props to Ganymeme for pointing out the military vs civilian State Alchemists thing


	7. Sibling relationships: Edward and Alphonse Elric

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fullmetal Alchemist puts a lot of emphasis on family, especially sibling relationships. There are several different pairs of siblings in the series, and each of them offers something interesting to the reader/viewer. This particular chapter is devoted to the main characters, the Elric brothers.

One of the things that make Fullmetal Alchemist so special to its fans is, undoubtedly, the relationship between two of the main characters, Edward and Alphonse Elric. I can tell you with all honesty that so far I have not seen a better dynamic between siblings anywhere. I genuinely think that it’s a great example of two characters that are well-rounded and balanced on their own but at the same time they complement and play off each other so well that looking at them together is even better, which is exactly what I’m going to do in this chapter.

#### Before we begin: Ed and Al’s age difference 

Age difference plays a big role in any kind of relationship, and siblings are no exception. The dynamic between twins is different from the dynamic between siblings who are born one or two years apart, which in its turn differs from the dynamic between siblings with a bigger age gap. Hiromu Arakawa chose to have one year age difference between Ed and Al. I don’t know if she has any siblings with this kind of age gap, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she does, because the depiction is spot-on. She achieves that through several different means, such as character designs, interactions and the overall journey.

#### Character design

While the design for Ed and Al is meticulously crafted to identify them as their own characters, it also works for their dynamics extremely well. Thanks to Al having two different bodies – a human and a suit of armor – we can notice different aspects of their relationship. 

Most of the time we see Al in his armor form. I don’t know his exact height, but it’s over two meters for sure, while Ed is around 150 sm. Arakawa deliberately drew Alphonse’s armor that big and heavy so that it would be in contrast to Ed’s much smaller stature, but it’s not used for comedic effect only. The drastic difference in their appearance goes well with just as drastic difference in their personalities, only the appearances seem to be mixed. But that’s the best part – Alphonse, the youngest brother, most of the time acts much more mature than Edward. In the manga there even was a moment where he says “I swear we were born out of order”. And the suit of armor reflects just that – Alphonse is the younger brother, but people see him as the elder one.

However, in his human form Alphonse looks pretty much identical to Edward. The difference is, of course, in the hair style, as well as eye shape – Ed has Tsurime eyes that symbolize his strong will, arrogance and pride (thank you, TV Tropes), Al has Tareme eyes that represent his kind and generally soft personality (thank you once more, TV Tropes). And again, apart from the fact that siblings tend to have similar appearances because genetics is a thing, it also shows that despite their differences they also have a lot in common. They are both brilliant, have a common interest in alchemy, can be equally stubborn, care about people around them a great deal even though they express that in different way, but most importantly, there is nothing one would do for the other that the other wouldn’t do in return. 

#### Character interactions

The differences and similarities in Ed and Al’s characters as well as the age difference reflect on the types of interactions they have. Being born a year apart puts them in an interesting position where they are seemingly equal – I mean, one year is not that big of a difference – but at the same time they have to play their roles as the big brother and the little brother. For Edward it means that he has to take responsibility for Al’s wellbeing, especially considering that they have no one to look after them (they actually do, but Ed is just too stubborn to admit that). At the same time, he can’t just boss Al around and make all the decisions for the two of them because they are equals. For Alphonse it means that he has to respect Ed’s authority as the elder brother but also take measures when Ed goes too far in whatever Ed is doing. So whenever Ed is overprotective because he tries to fulfill his responsibility as the elder brother, Al has to calm him down, and whenever Ed does something stupid, Al is not afraid to call him out on that, like he did during their first encounter with Scar or when he pointed out the flaws in Ed’s plan on using Scar to lure out the Homunculi. At the same time Alphonse is very aware of the fact that despite his showing more maturity in his actions than Edward, he is still the younger brother, which is expressed through the fact that he never, and I mean never calls Ed by his name, only using the word “Nii-san”, which is a respectful way of addressing your brother in Japanese. And Edward, for all his brashness and rudeness, in any situation has to make sure that Alphonse is OK as the responsible big brother he is. 

Another thing I like about their interactions is that there is no jealousy between the brothers. Alphonse openly admits that Ed is the stronger alchemist while Edward admits just as openly that Al is the better fighter. And while as kids they did fight over who would marry Winry when they get older, Alphonse is possibly the biggest Edwin shipper ever, so there are no convoluted love triangles either, for which I’m very thankful.

#### The development of Ed and Al’s relationship from childhood to adulthood

This is probably my favorite aspect of Ed and Al’s relationship in manga/Brotherhood – the way their bond changes throughout the series. From the flashbacks we see that they were very close when they were little. Even though they were friends with Winry they spent most of the time together, which is not very surprising considering that they lived in the country, and even though the Rockbells were their closest neighbors there was a considerable distance between the two houses. They became even more detached from the rest of the people around them after their mother’s death and started spending all their time preparing for human transmutation, and again, they did it together. At this point Ed was the leader between the two of them – it was his idea to try and resurrect Trisha, and Al followed without questions. And just like all siblings who are only year apart, they fought a lot, but obviously the fights weren’t anything serious and they would easily make up afterwards. 

Then they performed human transmutation, Edward lost his leg and Al lost his whole body. Edward was so afraid of losing his only family that he literally offered anything to bring Al back, and partially it worked – he managed to pull back Al’s soul in exchange for his right arm. From this point there is a shift in their dynamic – Edward feels guilty because not only did Alphonse suffer because of him, but between the two of them Al lost more than Ed. Alphonse can say all he wants that he was just as responsible as Ed because he was equally excited about the prospect of restoring their family and helped with the transmutation, but Edward is convinced that he is the one to blame. 

After Ed gets a State Alchemist license things change again. He becomes even more overprotective because now they have a secret to keep – they can’t let anyone know that Al’s suit of armor is empty. Alphonse starts acting more mature out of necessity because Ed’s new position combined with his personality means that he gets himself into a lot of dangerous situations. This is their dynamic at the beginning of the series as well. We also see that the guilt in Ed still as strong as ever when Al suggests that maybe he should get his certification, too, to which Ed responds that he is the only one who has to suffer the shame of being “the dog of the military” because he got them into this mess.

During the first part of FMA we see that their loyalty still lies mostly to each other; one is always the primary motivation for the other’s actions. When Ed (and Ling) gets swallowed by Gluttony, the only thing that he can think about is that without him Al can’t get his body back, and that thought helps him find a way out. At the same time Alphonse willingly goes to the lair of the main villain Father to try and find a way to rescue Ed (and Ling) from Gluttony’s stomach.

Things start to change a little more in the second part. When Ed gets stabbed by the support beam and uses his own soul to heal the wound, he says “I can’t let her cry over something as silly as this”. This is the first time when his motivation for doing something is not Alphonse. **Edit: my bad, didn't check the manga when writing. Ed actually recalls Riza's words about living for the people you love, and then Winry _and_ Alphonse. Brotherhood keeping only his promise to Winry is an interesting divergence between manga and anime, if you ask me.** Even in the plot this is the moment when Ed and Al are separated and become more independent. When Ed meets Winry in Resembool and learns from her that Alphonse is at the train station, he almost goes there but then stops, because this is the best course of action – his desire to keep Al safe by being away from him is stronger than the need to see him after months of separation. The situation is reversed during the battle the next day, with Al offering to be trapped with Pride for the duration of the Promised Day so that the others could have a chance at winning, even though it means that he wouldn’t be fighting alongside Ed as he should. The plan gets ruined though, so both Ed and Al get brought to Father’s lair and therefore they do fight together.

During the final battle with Father Ed’s automail arm gets destroyed and he is about to be turned to the Philosopher’s Stone. This is the moment when Alphonse does what everyone suspected one of the brothers would eventually do and sacrifices himself, agreeing to return to his body in the Realm of Truth in exchange for Ed’s arm, reversing Ed’s deal with Truth. This is a selfless and a calculated act at the same time – Al literally sacrifices himself to help Ed, but he does that knowing full well that Ed will come to get him; he says as much to Truth. And indeed, after the battle is over Ed starts to contemplate ways to bring Al back. He refuses to use Philosopher’s Stones for that because both of them swore to never use Stones for bringing their bodies back and he knew that Al would not want to be rescued in such a way. Given everything we know about the brothers at this point, the logical thing to assume is that Ed will now sacrifice his body in exchange for Al. But as Mustang explains (in the manga), there is no way he would do that to Alphonse. He remembers all too well the night of their failed human transmutation and the pain and despair he felt; he couldn’t possibly put Al through that. So instead he does something else – he gives up his alchemy by destroying his own Gate of Truth. This is not as grandiose as sacrificing himself, but for Edward, who lives and breathes alchemy, it’s a big part of his identity that he is still willing to give up because Al is much more important. 

Finally, having lived a peaceful life for two years after everything has settled, Ed and Al go separate ways again, only this time they do that on their own accord. Ed travels West and Al travels East, so they literally go in the opposite directions. But even though they are physically apart, they are still united by a common goal – to learn more about alchemy and the world and find a way to help people who suffered from misuse of alchemy. And it’s just such a beautiful decision for the end of the series. As much as we would want for Ed and Al to always be the team we meet in the first chapters/episodes, the ending where they go separate ways is the right one because they need to become their own persons. They form their own families and live their own lives – Ed with Winry, Al with Mei (possibly), but that doesn’t change the fact that they are and will always be brothers. 

I am amazed with what Hiromu Arakawa did regarding Ed and Al. The way they enhance each other’s characters is top-notch, we can actually see how different character traits come from their roles as brothers. Their day-to-day interactions as well as the overall journey feel natural to me because they are surprisingly relatable to my own experience. And finally, the things they do for each other speak volumes of their bond. All of these are the reasons why these two have the most beautiful sibling relationship I have seen in fiction.


	8. On Ed sustaining Al’s body

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was writing about the Homunculi and somehow ended up theorizing on how it was possible for Ed to provide nourishment for Al’s soulless body. Thought process is a curious thing indeed.

In chapter 44 “The Unnamed Grave”/ episode 20 “Father before the Grave” Ed expresses an idea that Al’s body might be still alive. To start his train of thought, Ed asks Winry is it true that when he and Al fought about who would eventually marry her, she shot both of them down, which Winry confirms. After that Ed asks both her and Al to recall some other things that he can’t possibly know about, and as it turns out, Winry and Al have way more shared memories that Ed doesn’t have than he had expected. Also, all of those memories are from the time before their failed transmutation, which means that the soul that Ed bound to the suit of armor is definitely Al. But what about the memories Al gained after the transmutation? Al suggests that they are stored within his blood seal, but the seal is just a symbol that ties Al’s soul to the armor; it’s not what holds his memories, his brain does that. From the fact that Al has memories and is able to think in general Ed concludes that his brain exists somewhere and is still functioning, and that means that his body exists, too. Ed using the brain to theorize that Al as alive is in line with the legal definition of death, at least in my country: a person is declared dead when all functions of the brain are dead, even if the heart and/or lungs are still stimulated artificially. The fact that Al’s brain is not dead means that the rest of the body is also alive. After all, they just met Barry the Chopper who proved that body and soul can exist independently. Ed then recalls that in alchemy humans are believed to be composed of body, soul and spirit, with spirit acting as a link between the other two parts. A person dies when the link breaks, but since a)Al has a soul, b) his body is somewhere and c) he stands right there before Ed it means that the link between his body and soul is not broken. Ed also recalls that the night of transmutation he said that Al was taken, not that he died. Al’s body was a toll for passing through the Gate, not an ingredient for the transmutation. Then Ed paid another toll to go back and pull Al’s soul out. If Al actually had died, his soul would have moved on from the body and Ed wouldn’t be able to do that. When Ed saw a hand stretching out to him in the Gate, he just assumed that it was Trisha, but since he isn’t sure he asks Al to think hard and remember, who was it that he saw in the portal? That’s where Al recalls that he saw his own body being reconstructed in front of him. For now, this is their confirmation that Al’s body is in wherever the Gate is. 

Then in chapter 45 “Scar’s Return” Al starts freaking out that his body isn’t getting any nutrients and is probably rotting. This is where Ed puts forth another theory: that he is the one who sustains Al’s body. His explanation is that for their transmutation they mixed their blood and during the transmutation itself they were both deconstructed. Because of that their spirits might have got crossed, too. This is also his reasoning for why he is small for his age; he needs to provide nutrients for two bodies. Winry is skeptical about this whole thing, but Al thinks Ed also sleeps a lot, so maybe he is also resting for two people. 

So there, a three part theory: 1) Al’s body exists in the Realm of Truth 2) because Ed and Al’s spirits got mixed during the transmutation, 3) which allows Ed to provide nutrients for Al’s body. What arguments do we have to support that?

The first part is 100% proven in chapter 53 “Signpost of the Soul”/episode 26 “Reunion” when Ed sees Al’s body with his own eyes. This is also the point where the second part is confirmed: earlier Ed figured out that if body and mind are connected by spirit and a part of his body (well, two parts) is still in the portal, then his spirit can guide the rest of his body to that part of him, and that’s how he finds a way out of Gluttony’s stomach. But it wasn’t just a portion of his own body that allowed that, it was also Al’s body, which is what Ed thinks in the manga when he sees it: “If we are connected, then that means there’s a possibility that I could get to where Al’s body is! I was right!” The fact that Ed and Al’s Gates are in the same place also confirms that their spirits are connected. First, Ed is surprised to see a second Gate, as it wasn’t there when he saw Truth for the first time. This is actually both interesting and potentially plot-holey because Ed and Al’s spirits were mixed during the transmutation, so shouldn’t that mean that by the time Ed sees Truth, Al’s Gate would already be there opposite his own? My guess is that either Ed didn’t notice the second Gate even if it was already there, or it took some time to appear. Or maybe it’s just a plot hole.

Or maybe, since this time Ed deliberately tried to reach something that is connected to him through his spirit, he actually managed to link his own Gate to Al’s, too. I don’t think we can know for sure whether their Gates are always in the same place or whether they only appear together whenever the connection between Ed and Al is invoked. Let’s see, when in chapter 107 “The Last battle”/episode 62 “A Fierce Counterattack” Al returns to his body, he briefly speaks with Truth, who is sitting in front of Ed’s Gate, so it’s easy to assume that ever since their human transmutation Ed and Al’s Gates are always opposite each other. However, this is the moment when Al makes a reverse exchange of his soul for Ed’s arm, and for the exchange Truth is sitting there wearing both of Ed’s limbs. That could mean that those are what’s drawing Al’s Gate to Ed’s. And in chapter 108 “Journey’s End”/episode 63 “The Other Side of the Gateway” we see Ed sacrificing his own Gate and then exiting through Al’s because they are again in the same place. However, it’s possible that during his last transmutation Ed did the same thing with letting his spirit guide him that let him escape from Gluttony’s stomach, only this time he deliberately chose to be guided towards Al. In any case, two Gates are not normally supposed to be in the same place, as confirmed by Mustang in the same chapter, so the fact that Ed and Al’s are suggests that there is some very unusual link between them.

Another argument in favor of the connection between Ed and Al is their simultaneous collapsing in chapter 76 “Shape of a Person, Shape of a Stone”/episode 41 “The Abyss”. It can be viewed as a coincidence or “feeling when something happens to a person close to you’, but in the context Ed and Al being connected and Ed sustaining both of them it sort of makes sense. Ed gets a lethal wound at this point in the story. If he actually dies, there will be no one to nourish Al’s body. This is why it starts pulling Al’s soul back as an instinct to stay alive. Granted, if Ed didn’t make it and Al’s soul was reunited with his body, he still would have died pretty soon, but like I said, it’s more of an instinctual reaction, not rational. At least, that’s how I see it.

The hardest thing to rationalize about this theory is how Ed is able to provide nutrients for Al’s body. Yes, it’s confirmed that their spirits are connected, but how does spirit transfer nutrients from one body to another? I think that the answer is hidden in the nature of the Realm of Truth. I have a suspicion that it exists simultaneously within and outside of human body, even though it’s pretty hard to imagine. Mostly this idea comes from two facts. First, during human transmutation an alchemist is deconstructed wherever he/she currently is and is then reconstructed in the Realm of Truth, which strongly reminds me of teleportation. So the Realm of Truth is a place that actually exists and you can appear there in your physical body. However, in contains individual Gates of Truth, and judging from how Ed gives up his Gate as a toll for Alphonse and is unable to perform alchemy afterwards, the Gate is a part of the human it belongs to, it’s _within them_. But If Al’s body is in the Realm of Truth that contains the Gate that is a part of Ed, then it’s also simultaneously outside and within Ed’s body, and, well, that’s how Ed is able to sustain Al and also his own limbs (which is why they also grow and when he gets his right arm back, it’s the same length as his left one) – even though they exist separately, because of the nature of the Gate of Truth both Al and his lost limbs are connected to not just his spirit, but to his body as well.

Does that make sense? Probably not, but since even the manga doesn’t elaborate on how that would work, there’s a lot of room for interpretation. I sure had fun theorizing all of this.


	9. Homunculi Part I

Today I’m going to talk about the Homunculi. Just to be clear, I won’t discuss them as characters, only the concept and the mechanics, but even with this limitation there are a lot of things to cover here.

#### The origins of the Homunculi

From chapter 74 “The Dwarf in the Flask”/ episode 40 “The Dwarf in the Flask” we know that Homunculus Father was extracted from Hohenheim’s blood during alchemic experiments. However, in chapter 108 “Journey’s End”/episode 63 “The Other Side of the Gateway” from the line “I don’t want to go back, I don’t want to be imprisoned there again” we learn that he came from the place behind the Gate. His being extracted from human blood still makes sense to me since I think that in manga/Brotherhood an individual Gate is both a part of a person and an actual place, even if it doesn’t have a physical manifestation unlike the planet’s Gate. I’m kind of curious why he has to be held in the flack though. It’s said that if his container breaks, he dies, but why would that happen? My guess is, since he technically lived in Hohenheim, you can say that Hohenheim’s body was the Dwarf’s vessel, too. Maybe he couldn’t exist in our world without having a physical form, so the alchemist who conducted the experiment had to substitute Hohenheim’s body with another vessel and used a flask for that.

A question I used to have is how many Homunculi are there at all? We have eight in the series, Father and his seven children, but can there be other Homunculi that are not in any way related to them? I think the answer is yes. Homunculi Father and Pride without their vessels look similar to those black hands that drag alchemists into the Gate of Truth, so those might very well be other Homunculi. This is probably what they are in general are: not a representation of a particular sin like those seven that were created by Father, but a species of bodiless creatures that inhabit the other side of the Gate.

Speaking of the seven, it’s curious how even within such a small group there is a great diversity in terms of appearances and ways they are created. Basically, the list of their common features consists of having a Philosopher’s Stone and one of Father’s sins at their core; other traits vary between each Homunculus. Like I said, I won’t talk about them as individual characters here, but I do want to have a look at their mechanics and abilities.

#### The creation of the seven Homunculi

We know for a fact that Pride is the first Homunculus created by Father while Wrath is the last, but what about the other five? I have a theory that Father has been perfecting his technique of creating the Homunculi as replacement for humans and therefore they were made in this order: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Greed, Lust, Wrath. 

Pride was the first one to be separated from Father; since Father’s goal is to essentially become God, and since pride is often described as the worst out of the seven deadly sins, it makes sense that Father would try to separate it before any other sin. He was also given the same appearance the Dwarf himself had before obtaining the Philosopher’s Stone, which also makes sense since one of the definitions of pride is that it’s an extreme form of selfishness. In terms of replacing humans Pride is the least able to do so: instead of having a biologically human body with a Philosopher’s Stone at its core, he is a non-human entity that lives in a humanlike shell.

Envy was created second, because envy is kind of a combination of pride and greed: you want something that doesn’t belong to you because you think you deserve it more. So after pride Father discarded of Envy, too, and made him look like a monster who could turn into human form; still not a perfect replacement for humans.

Gluttony was created third. In chapter 51 “A Portal in the Darkness”/ episode 25 "Doorway of Darkness" Envy mentions that it happened as a result of Father’s failed attempt to make a Gate of Truth. As we know, Father actually has an individual Gate already, and he definitely was aware of that – after all, he must have come through it when he was extracted from Hohenheim’s blood. Apparently, the Gate he was trying to create was supposed to substitute the planet’s Gate; maybe having discarded Pride and Envy he thought that it was enough to try and harness the power of God, so instead of sitting and waiting for his plan to be completed he tried the fast way and failed. Gluttony became the representation of his gluttony for knowledge and power. He looks more human than Pride and Envy, but the gate in his stomach is still a giveaway that he isn’t one.

Sloth was created after that. Father must have thought that it was his Sloth that made him fail at recreating a Gate of Truth, so he disposed of it, too. Sloth looks more human, but he’s too big and still not human enough.

Greed and Lust are tied: both are sins of desire, both don’t have any other forms that we know of and could easily pass as humans. However, Greed does have a drawback: it seems like his Ultimate Shield always starts at the tips of his fingers, which is a weakness that let him be defeated by Wrath, who was simply too quick for him. Lust, on the other hand, has a pretty efficient power, similar to Pride’s. That’s why I think Greed was created before Lust.

Lastly, Wrath was created with a specific purpose to rule the country during the final stage of the plan. He is kind of a step back from Greed and Lust because he is more human than is desirable for a perfect replacement, but it was necessary to make him like this so that he would not raise suspicions.

Of course, this is just my speculation; I just noticed a pattern and tried to rationalize it the best I could. Now let’s examine each Homunculus separately.

#### Pride

Pride is the eldest of the seven, even though his vessel takes a form of a child. As Mustang pointed out in chapter 87 “An Oath Made in the Underground”/episode 48 “The Oath in the Tunnel”, Selim’s age on photographs from different points in time seems to vary within roughly five years. Since Pride is definitely not a human-based Homunculus, he probably uses his Philosopher’s Stone to appear a little older. Also, even though he currently poses as the Fuhrer’s adopted son, I don’t think that he has been doing that all the time; Mustang simply states that Selim always stays close to the most powerful people in the government.

Selim Bradley isn’t very interesting to look at, though; instead, let’s discuss Pride and his shadows. I had this idea that he doesn’t really solidify shadows and simply uses them to hide himself so that he could be more threatening. But if the shadow tendrils he produces can be cut away from his body using light, then it means that they are actual shadows. I guess this is one of the more supernatural elements of Fullmetal Alchemist along with the Gate of Truth, souls existing separately from bodies and other stuff like that goes along with the fantasy genre. Still, I think I found a plot hole regarding Pride. Or maybe not a plot hole, but a moment that confuses me a lot. 

In chapter 86 “Servant of Darkness”/episode 47 “Emissary of Darkness” Edward causes a blackout in the nearby slums so that there wouldn’t be any sources of light and Pride couldn’t use his shadows. However, a shadow is formed when an object blocks rays of light, and night is a phenomenon that exists because at any given point in time one half of Earth isn’t getting any light from the Sun; therefore night is just one giant shadow. So wouldn’t that mean that by eliminating light sources Ed just gave Pride more material to work with instead of incapacitating him? Granted, because of the size of the shadow provided to him, Pride wouldn’t be able to form tendrils to stab his opponents. But his shadows also have eyes and mouths; with lights out the eyes would be useless, but the mouths are still a perfectly usable weapon. With such a big shadow at his disposal, he could create a giant mouth and just eat them all. He wouldn’t do that, though, because three of the five sacrifices were there with him, so I don’t think my correction would have an effect on the outcome of the fight and the plot in general. Same goes for the plan to trap him within an earthen cocoon: he probably could use the shadow inside the cocoon to eat his way out, but within the existing plot he does get rescued by Kimblee anyway. That’s why I say that it may not be a plot hole, as it doesn’t really affect the plot that much, but it’s still confusing to me.

Another thing I don’t really understand about Pride is his needing a container like Father did before taking Hoheneim’s form. In chapter 78 “The Seven Deadly Sins”/episode 42 "Signs of a Counteroffensive" Hohenheim speculates that Pride can only move around Central and within the tunnel that Sloth is building, just like the Dwarf couldn’t leave his flask (small difference between anime and manga: unless there’s a translation error in either anime or manga, in the manga Hohenheim actually mistakes Pride for Father and that’s why he makes that assumption, whereas in the anime my subs indicate that Hohenheim could tell that the creature in front of him is not Father, but someone similar). What’s so special about this tunnel that it can be used as a vessel for Pride? It’s not even hermetic like the flask was; not to mention that Pride can cast shadows, which are parts of him, or rather use existing shadows that become parts of him, so obviously he can exist outside of his vessel, at least partially. I think I’m going to use my “a theory by character is not valid unless it’s confirmed by at least one other character or proven by later events” excuse and say that Hohenheim is just wrong and Selim doesn’t even need a vessel for survival. Sure, when his current body starts decomposing after forcing Mustang to open the Gate he tries to replace it with Ed’s, as seen in chapter 106 “Pride’s Abyss”/episode 61 “He Who Would Swallow the God”, but what if he needs it less for survival reasons and more for convenience, or even out of habit, or because all the other Homunculi have bodies and he wants to have one, too?

A quick word on Pride’s true form and his Homunculus powers. I might be reading too hard into this, but the power of turning shadows into piercing tendrils also kind of makes sense. Pride is a sin of thinking that one is better than other people; it’s also often believed to come from ignorance. So if shadows represent ignorance that is transformed into something that can harm people like Pride’s tendrils, it is a suiting power. Lastly, in chapter 106 “Pride’s Abyss”/episode 61 “He Who Would Swallow the God” it is revealed that Pride’s true form is a fetus, which symbolizes how pride is just a very bloated ego.

#### Envy

To be fair, I don’t think I have too much to say about Envy. He generally looks like a human with a deliberately androgynous appearance, but is actually a shapeshifter who can turn into pretty much any person and even animals, as shown in episode chapter 49 “A Monster among Men”/episode 24 “Inside the Belly” (in the manga he looks like a horse, in the anime it’s a dog). Shape shifting is a perfect ability for Envy, because envy is a sin of wanting something that belongs to someone else, making you wish to be in the other person’s place. He also has two true forms, one is a giant green monster and the other is a small green lizard, which shows how, like Pride, envy can escalate from something small to something that eats you whole. To quote Mustang, “Envy is ugly”. It makes people do horrible things, and it’s only fitting that Envy was the one who triggered the Ishvalan War of Extermination. I think that’s all I can say on conceptual level, because other thoughts I might have on Envy probably belong to character analysis.

#### Gluttony

The most interesting thing about Gluttony is, of course, his being a fake Portal of Truth. His Homunculus ability outside of that is simply being able to eat indiscriminately, apparently, which is self-explanatory in the context of his name. The fake portal, however, is something worth looking at. It seems like whatever he eats ends up there regardless of how he does it, through his normal mouth or through the mouth in his stomach. For example, in chapter 50 “In the belly of the Beast”/ episode 24 “Inside the Belly” we see the skeleton of Father Cornello’s aide, and I doubt Lust would risk opening Gluttony’s mouth in the stomach simply to dispose of evidence, so he was probably eaten in a normal way. Also, this confirms my theory of Gates of Truth and their surroundings existing simultaneously within and outside human’s body, because this place is the perverted version of the Realm of Truth and Envy confirms that they are in the inside the stomach but at the same time they are not, because this place is “a place between truth and reality”. Putting philosophical ideas into my action adventure shonen manga/anime, aren’t we? Seriously though, there is [an interesting video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MohAKdL4ftE) on Truth on YouTube if you want more FMA-related analysis.

#### Sloth

Don’t have much to say about this one either; I guess I basically created this subsection to talk about Pride. Still, Sloth stands out with how paradoxical he is. His name suggests that he should be lazy, and while he does whine about how he doesn’t want to do anything, he is the most hardworking out of seven, literally working non-stop building that tunnel. And his Homunculus ability is that he’s the fastest Homunculus (can we call it Ultimate Speed?), which is also the opposite of the sin he’s supposed to represent. I’m puzzled.

#### Greed

Most of my thoughts on Greed go to character analysis, pretty much the only thing I can say here is how his Homunculus ability is, again, very suiting. He is the Ultimate Shield because greed means that you want to acquire more possessions and at the same time protect the ones you already have, and an Ultimate Shield expresses the last part perfectly.

#### Lust

The most noticeable part about Lust is that she 100% looks the part. Her ability the Ultimate Spear is intriguing though. I think I like the idea that she represents not only lust as in sexual desire, but also bloodlust. Her looks would be expression of the first kind of lust, and her weapon is pretty suiting for the second kind.

#### Wrath

Wrath is a human based Homunculus who ages and doesn’t regenerate. There is probably no need to explain that, but I still want to point out how Wrath and another Homunculus, Greedling, have different mechanics in their creation process, even though they are both human-based Homunculi. When Wrath was made, Bradley’s soul didn’t accept the Philosopher’s Stone, which resulted in a fight for possession of his body between all the souls within the Stone. Said body was destroyed and recreated using those souls until there was only one left. This is why Bradley can age and doesn’t regenerate, his Philosopher’s Stone only consists of one soul and it’s not even clear whether it’s his own or the one that came from the Stone, he says that himself in chapter 53 “Signpost of the Soul”/episode 26 “Reunion”. He still is a Homunculus though, because he has Father’s wrath in him, which gives him his ability, the Ultimate Eye. Ling, on the other hand, accepted the Philosopher’s Stone without a fight, so none of the souls within the Stone were wasted during his transformation. This is why his own soul survives the process unscathed and why he has the same regenerating abilities that Greed used to have; the Ultimate Shield, of course, comes from Greed himself, not the Stone.

As for the Ultimate Eye, I think it’s the same as with Sloth: ability opposite to the sin he represents. Wrath, or anger, can be blinding, but King Bradley has a vision clearer than any person’s.

I think that’s it for part one. I also have thoughts on how the Homunculi are used to discuss the theme of humanity, not to mention thoughts on individual Homunculi, but that’ll have to wait.


	10. Homunculi Part II: exploration of humanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I realized that trying to juggle manga and Brotherhood is not an easy task because a major chunk of the manga was recreated in the anime almost word to word while some other parts were shuffled enough to make me mistake manga events for anime and vice versa. I think I’ll stick with manga canon for now and rewatch Brotherhood after some time and see what changes were made other than those that I’m already aware of.

Ok, so apparently there is a canon order for the creation of the Homunculi between Pride and Wrath and it’s actually the opposite of my idea. It goes as this: Lust, Greed, Envy, Sloth and Gluttony. So instead of going from less human to more human they start out almost perfect Lust and end with, well, Gluttony. [ Shocotate here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shocotate) has pointed out that this is due to the fact that the more sins Father discarded from himself, the harder it was for him to keep making them as good as Lust has turned out, because each time he loses a part of his humanity. 

The reason I brought this up is because Shocotate’s theory on the reasoning for the order of the Homunculi’s creation is perfectly in line with Arakawa’s exploration of the theme of humanity. Of course, she doesn’t only use Homunculi for that; there are also souls, including the souls within Philosopher’s Stones, Ishvalan War, and most of the main cast, really. Here I will focus on the Homunculi only, because the other themes definitely deserve their own chapters. 

I can see two major ways in which Arakawa raises the topic of humanity in relation to the Homunculi: the first is the nature of seven deadly sins and the second is the Homunuli pride. 

#### The nature of seven deadly sins

#### 

> “Lust, greed, sloth, gluttony, envy, wrath and pride… humanity’s seven deadly sins. It’s true that any of these in excess can lead to self-destruction. But on the other hand, those flaws are the very things that make us human”. – Van Hohenheim, chapter 96 “Two Strong Women”. 

For a manga filled with vibrant and three-dimensional characters Fullmetal Alchemist does have a very bland main villain. Father is far from being an engaging character: he’s not charismatic, not active, he doesn’t really cause any emotion in the reader. And that’s actually the most interesting thing about him: all of that is intentional. Father is a person who tried to get rid of the weaknesses that he believed he had because of his human origin. His set himself a goal to become a perfect being, and in all honesty, I wouldn’t say that it’s an inherently bad thing to wish for. The catch was in the means he chose to achieve that: instead of working on himself he thought that physically ripping the seven sins that humans have would suffice, except that turned him into this bland boring guy who has nothing to do until his super complicated plan works out. 

You know what else is interesting? When Father first appeared in Brotherhood (for real I mean), I thought that he was Pride. Mostly because in that particular scene we have five Homunculi that we’ve already seen, then Sloth is said to be someplace else, and that’s it. Pride isn’t mentioned at all; I know why he was kept a secret, but my mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that Pride must also be in the room, and the only person in there whose identity was still unknown was Father; you do the math. Also, there’s a saying that “pride is the root of all evil” and that also tricked me. But I cannot help but develop my Father as Pride AU a little. Imagine if Father actually started discarding his sins one by one, from less intense to more serious. He got rid of six already, with only Pride, the deadliest one, the one that made him want to become a perfect being in the first place, left. But when he tries to create Pride he can’t, or rather he won’t, because why would he? He doesn’t have any more desires or weaknesses, he’s already perfect; or so he thinks, because at this point, he is Pride. 

But that’s not what happens in the manga, and I’m completely fine with it, because it still comes to the same result that having Father become Pride would have. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that even though he manages to rip the sins from himself and make them exist as separate beings, he doesn’t fully succeed. He still wants the power of God – that’s his greed showing. He thinks that he can pull off taking the power of God for himself – that’s the definition of pride. He wants the power of God but doesn’t do a diddly-squat to achieve that, letting his children/minions do all the work – I would call that sloth. And in the last chapters he shows that he can get pretty wrathful, too. Whether Arakawa actually meant it to happen or whether it was a side product of Father needing to be not a complete vegetable and have some emotions and motivations is irrelevant; from my point of view, the important thing here is that it shows that you can’t just magic these sins away; they are not called deadly for nothing, you know. So we have Father as an example of someone who chose the easy way of becoming perfect and fell on his face while doing so. 

But another thing that manga has is characters fighting the Homunculi that represent their most prominent sins. I don’t need to tell you any of this, because any person who has read the manga or has seen Brotherhood knows about Mustang vs Lust, Armstrong vs Sloth, Scar vs Wrath and Ed vs Pride. While those scenes make for really cool visual sequences, especially in the anime where pictures can move, the value of those confrontations is not in the fights themselves, but in the fact that in each of these cases the character wins the battle with a corresponding sin within themselves before taking on the Homunculus that embodies it. Mustang defeats Lust after he comes to rescue Hawkeye during their little “fishing” in spite of their agreement that he won’t interfere no matter what, which reveals just how much he actually cares for her. Armstrong defeats Sloth after refusing to run away from fight like he did in Ishval. Scar defeats Wrath after a whole semi-redemption arc that involved dealing with his wrath both towards alchemy and towards people who caused a massacre in his homeland(I call it semi-redemption because while he does make quite a turnaround, no one in the manga actually forgives him for the things he’s done, so he doesn’t get a full-on redemption). It’s less apparent with Ed because his big “I’m an ordinary human” moment comes after his fight with Pride, but he has been admitting that throughout the series, just in smaller portions, like when he denied that he’s a genius, for example, or after the Nina incedent, or in Rush Valley when he couldn’t do anything in a pretty serious situation. 

And of course, just like with almost anything else in the world, there’s the issue of duality when it comes to sins. Up to this point I was only talking about how the characters in the manga go about diminishing them either by taking the easy way out or by actually working on themselves. But just like Hohenheim points out in that quote I placed above, those are also the things that make humans, well, human. In chapter 84 Ed and Greed have a little discussion on desires: 

> Ed: Nothing good ever comes from asking for too much. See? I wanted to bring back the dead, and look what happened to me.
> 
> Greed: Oh yeah? “I want to bring back the dead”, “I want money”, “I want to protect this world”. Those thoughts all come from the same place – our ID. In other words, they’re our truest desires. The way I see it, greed is no different from hope. You don’t see a problem with too much hope, do ya? The problem is, you humans are always trying to apply a hierarchy to greed – what’s noble to desire, what’s taboo. It’s all good! 
> 
> Ed: you’ve got a pretty warped view of ethics! 

I really like Greed’s point here, not the part where he says that all greed is good, but the part about humans trying to sort greed into good and bad depending on what it’s directed at. I do want to point out that Greed uses the word “greed” as basically a synonym for the word “desire”, and while I can see where he comes from, I wouldn’t say those words are interchangeable. Still, what if we extrapolated his opinion on all sins, not just greed? People divide those into categories constantly. Take envy , for example. In my language apart for the bad, malicious kind of jealousy there’s also an expression “white envy”; it means that you kind of wish that a good thing that happened to some other person happened to you, too, but you don’t actually feel hostile towards the person that provoked the feeling. There are also things like righteous wrath, pride over someone else, gourmets, etc. And there’s a good reason for that. Greed is talking about greed and means desire; but all sins are desires. Pride is a desire to be recognized; envy is a desire to have something that someone else has; sloth is a desire to do nothing; wrath is a desire for justice; greed, lust and gluttony are desires for basic human needs. What distinguishes sins is that they are excessive desires, which brings me back to both Hohenheim’s line and Ed’s reply to Greed. Just like in any other debates that FMA offers, there’s no winner in Ed and Greed’s conversation, because both of them have a point. Greed is right that the rules what is considered a good desire or a bad desire is arbitrary; Ed is right that in excess any kind of desire is harmful. 

All of the above brings me back to Father. He tried to get rid of his sins because he only saw the bad side of them, thought they were preventing him from becoming a perfect being. It didn’t even occur to him that instead of completely severing his desires from himself he should have learned to deal with them and use them for creating good things in life. 

#### The Homunculi pride

Another major thread that goes throughout FMA is the Homunculi’s contempt towards humans. Every now and then they make comments on all the downsides of being human stemming from the Homunculi’s belief that they are the superior species, a newer and better version of humans. In chapter 6 “The Right Hand of Destruction” while observing the riots in Liore, Lust notes: 

“No matter how many times they repeat themselves, they never learn. Those sad fools”. 

In chapter 53 “Signpost of the Soul” Mustang asks Fuhrer Bradley if he wants to find a way to become human again. Bradley’s response is: 

“Why would I do that? We are different from you humans. Superior. My strength and eyesight have transcended that of a mere human’s. We are not a product of chance. We Homunculi were created for a purpose. And just as you humans take pride in being human, we Homunculi are proud of what we are”. 

In chapter 88 “The Understanding between Father and Son” Pride says: 

“If there’s one thing your kind have shown us over the centuries, it’s how predictable human spirit is”. 

And of course, Envy is the one who downright hates humans and calls them weak pretty much all the time, with all of it spilling out in chapter 95 “Beyond the Inferno” after Mustang refuses to go through with his revenge: 

You weren’t a fool! You were the most honest person here! What is this, some contest to see who can be the nicest? I’m gonna throw up! <…> There’s no way you insects can leave peacefully together!” 

All of those things are very true. Lust’s line about human stupidity is a slightly modified version of a famous quote “We learn from history that we do not learn from history”. Wrath’s reasons for being a Homunculus rather than being a human are very understandable. From physiological point of view, humans are one of the weakest species on the planet: too slow, too incapable in the early stages of life, more susceptible to dying in cold weather, etc. Of course, civilization compensates all that, but biologically speaking humans are species really are pretty weak. Pride’s line about predictability is also true and sort of correlates with Lust’s observation of how history repeats itself all the time. And Envy’s screaming how people cannot leave peacefully is, again, a reimaging of a proverb “Homo homini lupus est”, which is proven by real world and by the events of the manga as well. 

In this regard it is notable how the Homunculi are defeated because they underestimate humans. In Chapter 39 “Complications at Central” Lust simply left Mustang and Havoc to bleed to death instead of finishing them off. Her mistake was to disregard humans’ capacity to react to extraordinary circumstances and to use whatever means accessible to survive. Mustang used his flame alchemy to sear the wound closed, a proven if a very painful ways of dealing with injuries like that. But it’s not just his own survival that made him do that; he knew that other people depended on him, which gave him the strength to keep fighting and win against Lust. 

Wrath underestimated human’s ability to change. During his battle with Scar in chapters 103-105 “For Whom?”, “The Center of the World” and “The Throne of God” he mocks Scar for turning away from Ishvala and embracing alchemy by completing his brother’s tattoo for reconstruction on his left arm. But that very thing is what helps Scar survive the fight. Well, that and some other stuff. 

Envy underestimates human’s perceptiveness and the ability to unite in working towards a common goal. His attempt to make Ed, Mustang, Hawkeye and Scar fight against themselves (or rather make Scar fight with Ed, Mustang and Hawkeye) fails because when faced with common threat people are able to put aside whatever grudges they might have against each other. And after that he is humiliated by the fact that a human has figured him out and shows him compassion, to the point that he prefers to die rather than live with that knowledge about himself, that he was jealous of the ones he hated the most. 

Pride underestimates the power of individual personality and human intelligence. He simply assumed that Kimblee was assimilated after his body was devoured, because how could one possibly keep their identity in a torment of souls? This is a nice callback to his line about humans’ predictability: it’s true what he says, but sometimes you get individuals like Kimblee whose sense of identity is so strong that it isn’t lost in this torrent of souls. And, of course, Pride did not expect that this little distraction would be enough for Ed to reverse the process of Pride taking over his body by applying the knowledge of the Philosopher’s Stones Ed gained throughout the series. 

And last, but not least, Greed underestimates the effect people have on each other. He always thought of those who surround him as his “possessions”; however, months of sharing his body with one human and travelling in the company of other humans taught him that he is able to care not just about himself; in fact, he always was. He cared for his men from “The Devil’s Nest”, and he cares for Ed and Ling because they accepted him even though he is a Homunculus. This leads him to realizing that all this time his greed was directed towards having something that he’s always had the access to, so he gives up his most important possession, his own life, to help his friends. 

Also, let’s have a look at the things they say right before their deaths. 

Lust: You won. I hate to lose, but if I must die, I’m glad it’s at the hands of a man like you. Those eyes, so clear and focused… I love them. I look forward to seeing those eyes become clouded from suffering. That day will come very soon. 

Wrath:  Although my life had all been planned out for me ahead of time, thanks to you humans, at least the end was… more or less … a good life. A life worth living. 

Envy: Good luck with that superficial morality of yours… let’s see how far it takes you. Good bye, Edward Elric. 

Pride: Don’t come inside me! 

…

Edit: I'm sorry, but this is the last line. Here's the dialogue, although I doubt it can make the line any less ambiguous:

Pride:He turned himself into a Philosopher's Stone... He reversed the process and invaded me instead! 

Ed: I've got you now, Pride!!! 

Pride: Don’t come inside me! 

... 

Moving on

Greed: Sheesh. Neither Ling nor the runty alchemist ever treated me with the respect I deserved… It’s more than enough. Yup. I’m finally satisfied. I don’t want anything else. See you around, my friends of the soul. 

So to sum up, here’s what we’ve got from the Homunculi’s last lines. Sloth and Gluttony, the most deficient Homunculi who are incapable of complex though process, don’t really bring anything on the table: Sloth says how he’s too lazy to die, Gluttony begs to not to be eaten. This is why I didn’t bother quoting them at all. 

Lust, Pride and Envy even in defeat don’t exactly forego their beliefs about humans . In Lust’s case, she does acknowledge a single person. However, she stays on top by proclaiming that someday Mustang will suffer, too. Lust doesn’t say that just to screw with him, though. She has been observing humans for quite a while and she knows what she’s talking about, and in a way, her words do come true. Envy’s last words kind of puzzle me, mostly because how different I feel about them in manga and Brotherhood. I can’t be the only one who reads his line in the manga not as an acknowledgement of humans but as a snarky comment, right? However, in Brotherhood when Envy says “good luck” I get a feeling that he actually means it. So in appears that in the manga Envy actually doesn’t change his opinion of humans, but in Brotherhood he does. As for Pride, he doesn’t really come to any kind of realization, not verbally, anyway, but I actually won’t hold it against him, mostly because of the nature of the sin he represents: pride is literally thinking that you’re better than others. It’s similar to the situation with Envy, which also makes sense to me, because I already said how I see envy as a combination of pride and greed. Hm, now that I think about it, Envy’s death kind of has elements of the deaths of the other two: just like Pride, he doesn’t admit that humans are in any way better, just like Greed, he terminates his life on his own accord, the difference being in the intention, of course. Anyway, back to Pride: He does see the image of King Bradley and his wife right before being reduced to his true form, but I think it has less to do with the Homunculi as a concept and more with his character. 

Finally, Greed and Wrath, who are both human-based Homunculi, actually admit that people do bring something good in their lives. The most connected to humans out of the seven, at the end of the day they have no regrets about their lives exactly because of that connection. Wrath, is a former human who accepted the fact that he had been turned into a Homunculus. The choice of words in his final speech suggests that that did not change, but he still admits that humans made his life fulfilling. And Greed tries to grumble about Ling and Ed for appearances sake but then openly states that humans, especially these two, helped him achieve what he wanted the most. 

What does any of this have to do with humanity, you ask? The term is mostly used in relation to how we treat other people; “humanity” is usually a synonym of “benevolence” and “mercifulness”. But it’s not just that; at the core of it, humanity is basically a quality of “being human”. But what does being human mean? Well, it means never learning from your mistakes, feeling hostile towards others, simply being too weak both physically and mentally. It also means being resourceful and unique and kind and forgiving and understanding. These are all different facets of human nature, and they are all explored through the Homunculi. And even if the author has a pretty firm view on what it means to be human, she gives us enough space to have a different opinion. After all, not all of the Homunculi change their perspective on humans. 

#### A side note on human communities

In the preface to the last volume of Fullmetal Alchemist Hiromu Arakawa wrote: 

> “I’ve always tried my best to insert words of greeting and thanks to the character’s dialogue in Fullmetal Alchemist. I truly believe that a simple greeting or giving thanks helps us _appreciate the fact that we, as human beings, depend on the support of one another to live” _– Hiromu Arakawa, 2010.__

__  
__  


Human needing support in form of communities ranging from family to nation is referenced in Hohenheim’s dialogue with the Dwarf in the Flask in chapter 75 “The Last day of Xerxes”:

____

__

> ____
> 
> The Dwarf: Being a human is so inconvenient. You have to build communities in order to breed and propagate your species.  
>  Hohenheim: Don’t use the word “breed”. It might seem ridiculous to you, but we humans find happiness through our family and friends. 
> 
> ____

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So Father thinks that the need to form communities is what drags people down, yet he goes and makes his Homunculi and has them call him “Father”. He could have chosen to be called something like “Master” or “Creator”, but no, he is called Father, a term that indicates not just the fact of participating in creating a new person, but the social role that comes with it. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Hohenheim who notes in chapter 96 “Two Strong Women” how ironic it is that the Dwarf scoffed at the notion of family but ended up forming one himself. But even more important than that is Ed’s response to Envy’s rant about the violent nature of humans: 

____

__

> ____
> 
> “Humans are supposed to be so much weaker than you Homunculi, but no matter how often we get beaten down, become discouraged, lose our way, come close to falling, and even if we know that it’s for superficial reasons, we keep fighting on. _We find strength in each other. _That’s why you’re jealous of humans”.__
> 
> ____

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Yeah, yeah, this is classic “power of friendship” or “power of love”, nothing is new, whatever. But I will always appreciate authors making a point about people being stronger together, even if I’m not much of a teamworker myself. People do need support of others to overcome whatever obstacles they might face. Think really hard about any achievement in your life. Can you really say that you did it completely on your own, without any help or inspiration from others whatsoever? I think that’s hardly possible; I sure as hell can’t say that about myself.  


______ _ _

That’s it for my take on the theme of humanity in relation to the Homunucli in FMA. I hope I managed to explain decently enough why I don’t think that they are just “kind of there for the fight scenes”. 

______ _ _

______ _ _


	11. Alchemy Part I: Amestrian alchemy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I contemplated a lot whether I should write two chapters and examine alchemy and alkahestry separately but initially decided against it. Then I started writing and it turned out that there are quite a lot of things to cover just in relation to alchemy alone, so I’ll make it two chapters after all.

Alchemy is one of the most interesting aspects of the FMA universe to me and to a lot of other people, I assume, and it’s not hard to see why. I mean, exploring real life alchemy is what inspired Hiromu Arakawa to create the manga in the first place.Vol.21 of Fullmetal Alchemist features, as usual, a funny picture of Arakawa’s cow avatar saying “It looks like the series is going to end before I get a chance to organize all this research material that I’ve collected”, which I think truly shows her passion towards the subject. (Pssst, dear Hiromu Arakawa, if you have so much research material, how about you draw some more manga in this universe? just a suggestion). That passion is clearly very contagious, because I have been thinking a lot about the two branches of alchemy, and this chapter, as well as the next one, is the result. I think I’ll examine each branch separately starting with alchemy and then look at both sides together.

The first thing I probably have to do is decide whether alchemy is magic or science. It’s not an issue, really: to the characters within the FMA universe it’s a science, but it has some qualities that don’t work in our world, so for us it’s magic; simple as that. Now let’s examine what it actually is.

#### Theoretical and applied alchemy

All sciences have two sides: theoretical and applied. The two sides are very closely connected because without theory applied science can’t advance, but at the same time theories must be verified through experiments. Alchemy has those, too, and both sides are shown in the very first chapter “The Two Alchemists”. Just a few pages in we get a little practical demonstration of what alchemy is, but it’s not explained: Al draws a circle, holds his hands in strange manner and then bam – the radio is as good as new. Theoretical alchemy is what Ed and Al are talking about during Corenello’s “miracles” demonstration later one. Here we get our first piece of information on some of the rules of alchemy: the law of conservation of mass and the law of natural providence. Al explains these laws in a way that’s easy to understand:

> A substance can only be created from the same type of substance. For example, if something’s mostly water, you can only use it to make other things with the attributes of water. 

It’s well known that there are four main states of matter and various substances can alternate between them. From the looks of it, you can make solid objects from liquids, and Al is wrong: in chapter 51 “A Portal in the Darkness” we see Ed create a cooking pot and in the next chapter a sword for Ling from the surrounding blood. But that’s the thing, he didn’t literally turn liquid blood into solid metal, he simply separated the iron from water, and that only became possible because of the sheer amount of blood he had to work with. Therefore, Al’s explanation holds up. Alchemy can either change the state of matter or change one substance into another, but changing one substance into another substance in different state of matter can only happen consequently, not simultaneously.

Circles, arrays and runes a vital parts of both applied and theoretical alchemy. On applied level they determine the type and the outcome of transmutation. But it’s a field of alchemy that can be also developed theoretically: while there is nothing you can do to the circle since it’s a simple shape, new runes and arrays can be discovered and developed and then tested during experiments.

On a higher level of theoretical alchemy are things that for many years have been thought to be impossible to achieve: the Philosopher’s Stones and the Homunculi. I think both concepts are actually based on the Homunculi we know from the show. I doubt that Father, who is the founder of Amestrian alchemy, was telling about them to anyone who would listen, though. It’s more likely that in 400 years or so of the Homunculi reigning the country from the shadows someone found out about them before the events of FMA. Perhaps those people were silenced very quickly so instead of writing down their findings properly they only managed to leave vague references to artificial humans and a powerful alchemical amplifier that goes against the law of equivalent exchange.

Finally, on the highest level of theoretical alchemy are virtually improvable concepts like the one we find in an alchemical text in chapter 105 “The Throne of God”:

> The sun is a symbol for man, while the moon is a symbol for woman. When you combine the two, a hermaphrodite is created. In other words, it symbolizes a perfect being. 

This level is also where I would put “one is all, all is one” and “equivalent exchange”. The latter is the most important part of theoretical alchemy. The philosophy of equivalent exchange will wait, for now let’s just briefly look at it as one of the rules of alchemy. In its simplest form it stems from the law of conservation of mass and the law of natural providence. To obtain something, something of equal value must be lost. It’s the basic rule of transmutations that must be taken into account at all times. If the original amount of matter you want to work with is not enough to create the thing you envision, I assume that in the best case scenario the transmutation simply won’t happen; in the worst case scenario there will be a rebound. I believe it happens like this: when you try to transmute from an insufficient amount of matter, it also means you put an excessive amount of energy into your transmutation. The excess of energy has to go somewhere, so it harms the thing that’s closest to the circle, usually the alchemist. And speaking of energy…

#### The power source of alchemy

In chapter 106 “Pride’s Abyss” we get quite a lot of exposition on what powers Amestrian alchemy. Apparently, alchemists use the energy caused by the movement of the planets crust, or the tectonic energy. Except Scar’s brother, who studied texts on alkahestry imported specifically to him by foreign merchants because there wasn’t any information on the subject in all of Amestris as if someone had deliberately hidden it (cough Homunculi cough), started doubting that the energy of the Earth is what alchemists are actually using. Eventually he came to the realization that there was another layer between the tectonic energy and the alchemist, and that would be a gigantic Philosopher’s Stone… which means that’s what the alchemists had been actually using the whole time. This is how Father was able to render alchemists useless: he simply turned off their power source.

At least, that’s one conclusion I can draw from Scar’s explanation. However, if that’s the case, it’s probably even less feasible than Pride’s shadow powers, so allow me to disagree with canon. Just like I can’t imagine the State Alchemist program existing for decades without ruining the country’s economy given all the expenses it must create, I don’t think Father’s Philosopher’s Stone, as big as it is, could have acted as the source of all alchemy in Amestris for about 350 years. We don’t know how much energy even one human soul actually equals to, but there’s no way the Stone would last that long considering how many alchemists must have lived during that period and how many transmutations must have been performed every day. Also in Brotherhood transmutations that use Philospher’s Stone as a power source, like Homunculi healing or whenever Father or Hohenheim transmute something, create red flashes while during regular transmutations the light is blue. So I think I’m completely justified in doubting that alchemists all over Amestris have been using Father’s Philosopher’s Stone all along. (I know I said I would stick with manga canon, but can you imagine transmutations in any other color? FMA 2003 does that, but in Brotherhood it’s either red or blue).

Besides, Scar goes on to explain that his brother came up with a circle that countered the power of the Philosopher’s Stone and allowed the alchemists the unlimited use of tectonic energy. From this line I conclude that Father wasn’t substituting the Earth’s energy with his Philosopher’s Stone, but was obstructing its use in some other way. After all, he was the one who introduced alchemy to Amestrians as he would later need people who performed human transmutation to use as human sacrifices. So what if Father taught alchemists to only use tectonic energy in a specific way that he could control if needed? That could be achieved, for example, through interfering with

#### The process of transmutation

Alchemy, as we all know very well, is the science of understanding, deconstructing and reconstructing matter. Understanding means knowing what elements the matter is made of; deconstructing is separating those elements from each other, and reconstructing is rearranging them so that a new type of matter is created or the same matter is created in another place. That’s how alchemy is taught in Amestris. Going ahead of myself I have to say that alkahestry is never mentioned to have those steps (unless I somehow missed it). It may be because it’s not explored in FMA as extensively as alchemy OR because those steps don’t exist there. So what if the specifics of alchemical transmutations are actually the key to why alchemists are not able to use tectonic energy the way alkahestrists can?

Three steps of alchemy, after all, contribute to only one obligatory element of alchemical transmutations: the alchemist’s knowledge. It is stated quite clearly in the manga that alchemy can’t be used by any random person not because it’s an individual gift like magic in Harry Potter or bending in Avatar the Last Airbender that you have to be born with, but because it’s very hard to learn. For example, in chapter 3 “The Mining Town” the innkeeper tells Ed that he tried to study alchemy but gave up. And indeed, alchemy requires an extensive knowledge of what we would call chemistry and physics, the ability to draw complicated circles and arrays and to actually memorize all the necessary runes; no wander that most people don’t get into it, it’s too hard.

The other three elements of the transmutation process are the power source, which is exactly what I’m trying to figure out, the transmutation circle and the Gate of Truth. Apparently, the Gate acts as a conductor between the knowledge and the energy (well, duh, it’s called the Gate): since it exists both inside and outside the alchemist’s body, it is able to draw the energy from the outside world and channel it through the alchemist’s body to the matter being transmuted. The circle with runes and arrays, which is explicitly said to be an obligatory part of any transmutation, is what defines what the end result will actually look like. Here’s what Izumi tells us about circles in alchemy in chapter 23 “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”:

> The foundation of alchemy is the power of circle. The circle dictates the flow of power, and when the proper runes are written within it, it is possible for the power to be released. 

Even those alchemists that have seen the Truth are not exempted from this rule, it just looks differently. As Al notes, putting hands together symbolizes the circle, and to that Izumi adds that in this case the alchemist’s body substitutes the necessary runes. I do wonder how exactly it happens. I had a thought that maybe it has something to do with the Gate – you know, that the Gate substitutes the runes, but Hiromu Arakawa did say that after losing his Gate Ed can’t use alchemy or alkahestry, which is shown in the “two years later" part of the last chapter, so the Gate must be more important than that. That’s why I said that the Gate is what draws the energy from the earth, while the circle controls the flow into the area that needs to be transmuted, and the runes define what kind of transmutation it will be. From Izumi’s words I think it’s safe to assume that the runes serve as an exit point where the energy transfers from the circle directly to the matter being transmuted; since in the case of alchemists who have seen the Truth the flow of energy in the circle is internal, after they take their hands away from each other the circle is broken to create two exit points.

Ok, so how is Father able to control alchemy but not alkahestry if he doesn’t substitute tectonic energy with his own Philosopher’s Stone that he can sort of disable and make alchemy useless? I think this is where the three steps of transmutation come in. Again, this is just my interpretation of the process, so if it doesn’t go well with your opinion or even with the canon, it’s alright. The way I see it, the first step, understanding, is only preliminary. It doesn’t happen during the transmutation, but before it. In other words, understanding doesn’t mean that you can simply touch something, “see” what its components are and then proceed to the next step; it refers to the alchemist’s knowledge of the composition of various things at all times. Basically, the first step of transmutation is a never-ending process in itself. That’s why alchemists who commit to a particular field of alchemy are so effective; they know it back and forth. Obviously, Father can’t stop someone’s thought process; therefore, he can’t interfere with the first step.

The next step is deconstruction. Knowing what the matter is made of allows the alchemist to separate it into its primary components. Now, I can’t tell with 100% certainty what those components in FMA are because it’s not even clear what the smallest particle that makes up our world is. Atoms were believed to be those for a long time, but modern science knows so many particles tinier than them that it’s hard to keep track of all of them. However, alchemists do need to have a universally acknowledged tiniest part of matter known at the time for the step of deconstruction to even be possible. If I had to guess, they probably work on atomic level; I conclude that from how Ed was able to figure out that Greed’s shield was made of carbon since the properties of carbon are defined by the type of its crystal structure; alchemists possibly can manipulate protons and electrons, but that’s about it. I don’t think alchemy has advanced further than that in knowing the structure of matter; the world of Fullmetal Alchemist might have very advanced prosthetics, but alchemists don’t really have the equipment that would allow them to discover particles much smaller than atoms.

I think that this is the step where Father actually can interfere with transmutations all over the country. In “Pride’s Abyss” Ed actually comments on how different transmuting feels after Scar’s brother’s reverse transmutation circle is activated, that it suddenly became easier than before. This is because, just like Scar said, the Philosopher’s Stone was creating an additional layer of energy that was sort of obstructing the use of tectonic energy. Again, going a little ahead of myself, I think that alkahestrists like May can make a distinction between the two sources of energy and direct the flow of earthen energy past the layer of the Philosopher’s Stone. But alchemists are not taught to be attuned to chi, so they try to pull the energy for the steps of deconstruction and reconstruction right through the layer of the Philosopher’s Stone. That’s why alchemy is not used to its full potential until the reverse transmutation circle is activated: some of the energy is lost trying to get through the Philosopher’s Stone. So in my opinion, when Father needs to block alchemy completely (which I doubt happens often; probably the couple of times he did it during the events of FMA are the only instances when he even needed to do that), he activates his Philosophers Stone, blocking the flow of energy completely. Also, the manga itself has an example of preventing the deconstruction step: in chapter 45 “Scar’s Return” Ed deflects Scar’s deconstruction by, I assume, his own deconstruction step at the same time as Scar. Obviously, Father must be doing something different, but as we see, the precedent for canceling alchemical reaction at the deconstruction stage does exist in canon.

So to sum up this section, I think that alchemists actually are using tectonic energy like their textbooks claim, just not to its full potential. Father can use his Philosopher’s Stone to block the use of that energy because of how alchemists approach to extracting it for their transmutations.

#### This part is completely bonkers but please bear with me

Here’s one tricky and potentially plot-holey moment: Alphonse Elric doesn’t have a body but is able to perform transmutations, so let’s have a look at how he can transmute before and after remembering his encounter with the Truth. Since Al’s body is alive, he still has his Gate of Truth, so drawing energy from its source to the point of transmutation – check. His actual body that among other things contains his thinking brain that is able to use the three steps of alchemy to identify what kind of transmutation will occur is linked to his armor through his spirit, or mind – check. A circle with runes that allows him to perform the type of transmutation he wants to perform – check. Except his body is not in the armor, so how does the energy travel from the earth through his Gate to the circle he has drawn? I guess the answer is the spirit – it’s also energy, isn’t it? Just like water can carry other liquids within it, his spirit carries the energy for transmutation from his real body to the one he’s stuck with. That’s how he uses clap alchemy, too: the process of transmutation is still conducted within his actual body and then is transferred to the outside world through the spirit.

Wait a minute, what if Al’s body was able to survive in the Realm of Truth not because of Edward, but because each time he was performing transmutations some residual energy (in very small amounts that wouldn’t cause a rebound for trying to circumvent the law of equivalent exchange) stayed in his body? We know that In Fullmetal Alchemist energy is not only used to facilitate transmutation of matter to matter, but can be turned into matter directly – that’s how Philosopher’s Stones work. I mean, it doesn’t nullify the definitely proven fact that Ed and Al’s spirits are connected – heck, I forgot to mention it in my chapter on Ed sustaining Al’s body, but one more proof that they are connected is that Al’s soul is linked to his armor through a seal that was drawn in _Ed’s_ blood. Just because they are brothers doesn’t mean it’s indifferent whose blood was used to anchor Al’s soul to the armor –siblings can have different blood types, for example, so it’s not all the same. The blood seal doesn’t really contain his soul, so Ed didn’t “put” it there. As explained in chapter 11 “The Two Guardians”, the soul is tied to the blood through spirit, and the iron in the blood is bonded to the iron in the armor. So basically Al’s soul is tied to both his body and the blood seal. Except the blood seal is not drawn in his blood, and we know from Ed’s explanations that the spirit binds the soul only to its _own_ body.

This is where their link comes in – since Ed and Al’s spirits are connected, just like in my example with the energy for transmutation, Al’s soul is not really tied to the blood seal through his spirit alone, but because the seal is part of Ed’s body and Ed’s spirit is connecting Ed’s body to the blood seal, creating a pathway to Al’s spirit and binding his soul to Ed’s blood. Either that, or I’m just going crazy, what with writing this at 2 am and all. Anyway, while their spirits are definitely connected, there is a possibility that Al’s body was not getting nutrients from Ed, but was converting the energy from performing transmutations into building material for his body (admittedly, in insufficient amounts). Same goes for Ed’s arm and leg that were taken be Truth, they were able to grow because of all the transmutations Ed has performed in five years.

#### Types of alchemy

In chapter 1 there is something else Al mentions about alchemy: some alchemists conjure with the four elements, others with the three principles. The four elements are pretty obvious, but the three principles is something I have not heard of before. Thanks to the internet I now know that those are:

1\. Salt: the principle of non-action and incombustibility.

2\. Mercury: the principle of fusibility and volatility.

3\. Sulfur: the principle of inflammability.

Don’t see a lot of differences between the two approaches, to be honest. Salt = earth, mercury = water, sulfur = fire. I guess the principles are more applicable to bioalchemy, for example, the principle of mercury is probably what’s used to create chimeras.

The manga mostly focuses on alchemists who work with either earth/metal (Ed, Al, Izumi, Armstrong) or flame/explosions (Mustang and Kimblee), so I’ll look into those a bit, too. Keep in mind though that I don’t have any special education in chemistry other than high school classes a long, long time ago, so below you will find the reasoning of someone who sort of thinks how transmutations could be explained but doesn’t know the subject that well to actually confirm whether the things described in the manga are plausible.

#### Earth and metal transmutations

Those are pretty easy to explain, I think. Transmuting various forms from earth is simple enough: just like waves aren’t moving horizontally, alchemists don’t physically propel earthen masses from one place to another but let the energy travel through the ground to the point where they need a column or a stone fist or whatever to pop up. You have to remember the law of equivalent exchange though, because shifting too much rock from the earth into the air creates a crate. I actually think that the bigger spikes and fists and other stuff that alchemists use during their fights can or at least should be hard but hollow, otherwise too much earth would be required for the transmutation.

Transmuting metal from earth and stones is a little trickier, I think. I doubt that to do that they simply extract something like iron from the surroundings; I don’t know much about mining, but even reach iron ore only has about 50% of iron in it, the rest is waste. But alchemists don’t work with iron ore, they use regular earth and regular stones where the percentage of iron is even lower. That’s why I think you can’t create a metal spear from the pavement under your feet, even if it’s hollow inside: there isn’t that much iron in that amount of earth. I think what they do is actually turn the stone to metal, quite literally. It’s not impossible, since we saw Edward transmute gold bars out of coal culm in chapter 3. I guess alchemists do use alchemy on the level of electrons and protons: by rearranging them it’s possible to turn one element of the periodic table into another, e.g. earth’s components into metal, or one kind of metal into another kind of metal. With the spear example the spear is smaller in volume than the rock it’s created from because metal is denser, but their mass is equal in accordance with the law of equivalent exchange. Also, I think Armstrong’s alchemy confirms it, because he quite literally turns rocks into projectiles.

Does it mean alchemists can also create not just metals but also metal alloys? I believe the answer is yes. It’s definitely harder to make a simple iron spear than a steel spear, but I don’t think it’s impossible.

#### Flame alchemy 

We know for a fact that Roy Mustang is the only flame alchemist alive since the only other person who knew how to use it is dead. However, Kimblee uses alchemy that has a similar effect, so what’s the difference between the two similar types of alchemy?

I think it depends on what is manipulated. Flame alchemy is about working with flammable gases in the atmosphere. In chapter 4 “Battle on the Train” we see that the flare starts right at Mustang’s glove. He’s changing the gases in the area into a path that’s starting from his glove and ending with whatever object he is planning on burning. Snapping his fingers creates a spark, which in the presence of oxygen in the air ignites the path and the fire travels to the object that goes boom! Basically, he creates fire first and explosion second. Kimblee, on the other hand, focuses on flammable elements within solid objects, causing an explosion first.

Since flame alchemy depends heavily on constant supply of oxygen, many people are pretty skeptical about Mustang using it in an underground facility when burning Lust and Envy. I don’t really see a problem with that. First of all, during his battle with Lust they are in a giant room, so there’s quite enough of oxygen there to start with; during the battle with Envy they are in the tunnels that are interconnected and seemingly have no doors between the passages, so that’s a pretty large room, too. Secondly, this is a governmental building with ventilation, and in neither of these cases the place is hermetic, so there is a stable flow of oxygen to the room. In fact, considering how (in the anime) Mustang is using the lighter/snapping his fingers periodically, he probably waits until enough fresh air comes to the area for him to use. I have to say two things though: one, it has to be freakishly hot in the room after his fireballs, and two, after that much body burning the stench there should be unbearable. But I still think that Arakawa did take into account that Mustang couldn’t create too large fireballs (because of the equivalent exchange, of course), so in chapter 93 “Archenemy” he only burns the legs of the Immortal army, not them whole. I have to admit though, I don’t think there are any wide panels of the room to see if he finished them off after burning off their legs.

Also, I actually found an article on flame alchemy that does a better job explaining it, so here’s [a link](http://www.animescience101.com/flame-alchemy/).

#### Chimeras

While bioalchemy isn’t really explored in the manga, we do get a lot of proof that it’s actually pretty developed in Amestris. The most prominent example of it is the concept of a chimera, a creature made from several genetically incompatible species. The majority of chimeras we see in FMA a people fused with different kinds of animals. Nina Tucker was the first chimera of that kind that we see in the manga and she actually looked like the animal she was fused with. There’s also Bido who is kind of in-between: he mostly looks like a human, but has a tale and what seems like gecko abilities. But all the other ones we see look completely human and can turn to more animal-like forms whenever they want. Here’s a thing though: I have no clue how would that work. Chimeras are not alchemists, so they definitely can’t use alchemical reactions on themselves; but when they transform, their bone structure changes, they grow out fur, fangs and whatnot. I’m definitely putting chimeras to the box of “fantasy stuff that you have to accept in FMA”. It’s not a deal breaker for me, I quite enjoyed the chimera characters, but I have no way of explaining how they function.

I think I’ve exhausted my thoughts on alchemy for now. I still have Part II to write, so if I suddenly remember or find something else about alchemy while examining alkahestry, I’ll bring it up.


	12. Alchemy Part II: Xingese alkahestry (ft. Scar’s brother’s alchemy)

#### A moment of linguistic nerdiness

From a purely linguistic point of view I want to honestly and unironically thank whoever decided to translate alkahestry from Japanese as, well, “alkahestry”... even though in the version of the manga I'm reading it's simply called "purification arts". Still, the thing about Japanese words for alchemy and alkahestry is that they sound similar enough to be easily mistaken for each other but are still different. “Renkinjutsu” means alchemy and, as the internet tells me, “making big money”, and can be literally translated as “the art of making gold”. “Rentanjutsu” means alkahestry and can be translated as “the art of making elixirs”. The two branches of alchemy in FMA represent two applications of alchemy as a whole and the Philosopher’s Stone in particular – making gold and making elixir (of life). The English word “alkahestry” is coined from “alkahest”, a hypothetical ultimate solvent. So to find a word in English that would a) be related to alchemy, b) sound similar to the word “alchemy” and c) have a connection to the word that’s being translated (cause you can say that elixir and alkahest are liquids) for this second branch of alchemy is an example of a great translation in my book. 

#### What we know about alkahestry from the manga

As I said in the previous chapter, the manga doesn’t explore alkahestry as extensively as alchemy. Pretty much everything there is to learn about it comes from May Chang, who is the only practicing alkahestrist in the story. 

Just like with alchemy, the first time we learn about alkahestry we actually see it performed. Chapter 32 “Emissary from the East” starts with May Chang arriving to Youswell and stumbling upon Khayal, the son of the innkeeper from Chapter 3 “The Mining Town”. Khayal gives the starving girl a meal he was actually taking to his father when suddenly he hears the news that a mine had collapsed. As a way of thanking Khayal for the meal and because she is a good person May Chang uses her alkahestry skills to clear the rubble so that the trapped miners, including his father, can exit from the mine. Here we see one of the major applications of alkahestry: remote transmutations. May Chang uses a circle with a pentagram, but without any runes, embedding five kunai into the points of the pentagram instead. The second circle that appears at the place where she threw another five kunai (seriously, how many of those she has on her? is she like Legolas in that regard?)reflects the circle with the pentagram. 

The first glimpse of the theory of alkahestry comes from another character in the same chapter – Ling Yao. Even though he is not an alkahestrist himself, he apparently has at least passing knowledge of what it is. Ling reveals that alkahestry is descended from medicine. He juxtaposes it to science, though; seems like alkahestry doesn’t get the same treatment in Xing that alchemy gets in Amestris. 

In chapter 45 “Scar’s Return” May notices how Scar’s tattoo incorporates symbols of alkahestry, most notably the dragon waves – a technique based on the knowledge of the Earth’s flow that allows to control it. However, May herself never uses the symbol, which is not surprising because it would take ages to draw that thing. 

Then in chapter 48 “A Promise Made by Those Who Wait” we see alkahestry actually used for medical purposes for the first time in the series when May heals Scar’s wound. Notice how she uses the same circle with pentagram and kunai that she used to clear the rubble in chapter 32 to do a completely different thing this time. May also reveals that there are limitations to the medical application of alkahestry: 

> I can’t heal everything. Just as there is a flow within the Earth – that which we call “veins of the dragon” – the human body also has its own flow of power. If the flow has stopped in a certain area, I can’t repair it. Also, if someone loses an arm, I can’t grow a new one. 

In chapter 55 “The Avarice of Two” we learn that alkahestry really is different from alchemy when May can use it but Ed and Al can’t transmute. It’s brought up, but is not explained yet. 

In chapter 67 “Burgeoning Borders” a lot more things are reavealed about alkahestry, this time about its power source. 

> The Earth itself has an energy. Like a life force, the energy maintains harmony in the world. You could think of it as a river of power that flows in the ground like a pulse. By understanding the harmony of this pulse, it’s possible to ride that flow and transmute something to a distant location. This power can be applied to anything! 

And here is the first time when the power source of alchemy is stated to be the tectonic energy by Dr Marcoh and the first hint that it might not be true: 

> May: Amestrian alchemy doesn’t use the dragon pulse, does it?  
>  Dr. Marcoh: No. It employs the energy generated from the movement of the plates on the Earth’s surface. You know how massive amounts of energy are released during an earthquake or when a volcano erupts? That’s caused by the movement of plates beneath the Earth’s crust. The alchemy of this country stems from harnessing that diastrophic energy. In fact, the equations for doing that were completed over 350 years ago. According to a legend, a philosopher from the East gave us those equations, but that’s just a legend.  
>  May: But that’s not totally true, is it? I’ve had a funny feeling since I first came to this country, and that feeling got clear to me the other day when I was in the tunnels under the Central City. This power that flows beneath our feet isn’t coming from the movement of the Earth’s plates. It’s from the movement of lots and lots of people. 

Really hammering it in that the source of Amestrian alchemy is Father’s Philosopher’s Stone, right? 

In chapter 76 “Shape of a Person, Shape of a Stone” another thing we learn about alkahestry is this: 

> In Xing, immortals are called “true beings”. True beings are considered perfect souls – just as gold is thought to be the perfect metal. Maybe that’s why immortals are called “beings of gold”. Of course, there’s another theory… that the name came about because the person who brought alchemy to Xing was an immortal with golden hair and golden eyes. 

Hohenheim wasn’t too discreet about him being immortal, apparently. 

I really think that that’s all there is to know about alkahestry. There are other moments of it being used in the series, of course, but I was only looking for the theoretical parts. 

#### The difference between alchemy and alkahestry

So are alchemy and alkahestry two branches of the same art, if they function differently and even utilize seemingly different sources of energy and all? My answer is yes, and here’s why. 

In my previous chapter I wrote that there are several key elements to alchemical transmutations: the alchemist’s knowledge, the Gate of Truth, circles with runes and arrays, and a source of energy. If alkahestry requires all the same things, then we can say that it’s the same as alchemy. Let’s see if it does. 

Do alkahestrists need the Gate of Truth? Yes, they do. Hiromu Arakawa said that Ed cannot use any kind of alchemy after losing his Gate, and that includes alkahestry. Since it’s not really in the manga – after all, in the final chapter we only see Ed failing at performing clap alchemy – this notion can be accepted or rejected. So if someone has a headcanon that Ed is able to use some form of alchemy and just not the one he’s used to, I wouldn’t even say that it contradicts the canon. I, however, accept Arakawa’s words on this matter, and therefore I accept the fact that alkhestrists also need to use the Gates of Truth. One element is the same. 

Do alkahestrists use circles with arrays and runes? Partially. They use circles and arrays, sure, but don’t seem to need runes. That’s because the runes are substituted with kunai. Well, I don’t know if it has to be kunai or any kind of sharp object would work, but still. Kunai are the exit points for the energy, just like runes in alchemy. Also, I can give two reasons for why the same circle with pentagram is used for different types of transmutations. First – because they are not exactly different types. In both cases it was a long-range alkahestry, and I think that’s exactly what the pentagram symbolizes. I’m not sure but there’s a chance that alkahestry can’t really change one matter into another like alchemy does, and I’ll give my reasons for that a bit later. My second guess is that it’s just an inconsistency. FMA has those, so not everything can be explained; sometimes a plot hole is just a plot hole. Still, alkahestrists use circles and arrays and mark energy exit points with kunai – I would say now two elements are the same. 

Do alkahestrists use the same energy source as alchemists? That’s a tricky question. First, because it’s shown that even alchemists can use two different sources of energy – tectonic and soul. Yes, I still stand by my theory that even in the manga, where, admittedly, we can’t see the color of transmutation energy so it can actually be whatever the hell we want in our imagination, the overall source of alchemic energy is the movement of Earth’s crust. To my earlier reason that Father’s Stone couldn’t have been powering all alchemy in Amestris for 350 years without running out within several decades tops I add that using Philosopher’s Stone feels different. If the soul energy was the power source for alchemy all along, why would there be any difference in how it feels when using compared to regular transmutations? So yes, I think that alchemists are using tectonic energy. What about alkahestrists? May’s answer suggests that the Earth’s energy, the “dragon vein” is different, but is it? Well, I don’t have a definitive answer to that. It’s possible that they are different – after all, the planet is revealed in the series to be a single organism with its own Gate, so it can have a chi and that’s what alkahestrists might be using as their source of power. It’s also possible that tectonic energy is a type of Earth’s overall energy, and in that case the energy source is pretty much the same. But even if they are different, the important thing here is not what the power source is, but if there’s a source of power that the Gate would have to tap into to provide the energy for transmutations. 

Do alkahestrists use their knowledge of the world to perform transmutations? Yes, but the way it’s used constitutes, in my opinion, the biggest difference between alchemy and alkahestry. Like I said, the manga never mentions that alkahestry works with understanding, deconstructing and reconstructing matter, because it doesn’t. Hiromu Arakawa wrote alkahestry in a way that made it the opposite of alchemy in that regard. Alchemy is all about scientific approach. Alchemists study the world around them to know its structure in order to have control over it, to literally break it down and rebuild it the way they want it to be. They manipulate matter to convert it to something different by using their knowledge of the tiniest particles of the world known at the time and as a power source they use the most destructive type of earthen power, the tectonic energy. That is not the case with alkahestry. Alkahestrists don’t try to harness the energy around them; as May says, they ride with the flow, guide it if needed. That’s why I don’t think they can actually turn rocks to metals, for example – they don’t use deconstruction and reconstruction of matter the way alchemists do. (If there is a part in the manga where May actually changes matter completely please tell me, because I honestly couldn’t find anything but there is a chance I simply missed it). May Chang can make stone fists appear from the ground like other alchemists, but in my opinion, she doesn’t do it by deconstructing it in one place and then rebuilding in another – the energy does it for her. Don’t want to insult May’s intelligence, but she doesn’t look like she holds a ton of formulas and equations and the whole periodic table in her head like some other people we know. This is my primary reason for doubting that alkahestrists even need to study chemistry the way alchemists do; instead they develop their sense of chi. 

As you can see, the process of transmutations is mostly similar. Basically alchemy and alkahestry are two sides of the same coin, just like the words that describe them: the first is materialistic, the second is spiritual. However, these differences don’t define them. Alchemy in Amestris is used for war and alkahestry in Xing has mostly medical applications; however, alchemy can heal while alkahestry can be destructive. That’s because neither is inherently good nor inherently bad and both are just tools that be used in whatever way their wielder wishes to. 

#### Scar’s brother’s alchemy

To be honest, I don’t think there’s much to say on this new kind of alchemy. We know that Sacr’s brother managed to combine Amestrian alchemy and Xingese alkahestry so that he could nullify the effect Father’s Philosopher’s Stone. I think that what he tried to do was to combine the strongest aspects of the two branches. From Amestrian alchemy he took the stages of alchemy. We know that he designed two different tattoos, one for deconstruction and the other for reconstruction. A tattoo for understanding is not necessary because, as I said in my previous chapter, understanding is an ongoing process for alchemists. From alkahestry he took the approach of guiding the energy of the Earth instead of harnessing it, which is evidenced by the fact that the tattoos feature the symbol for dragon veins. It’s also quite interesting how even this new kind of alchemy still uses circles, but in a less apparent way – while alchemists can tattoo circles on their body, too, they are always being displayed on the flesh (or gloves, or gauntlets). In Scar’s brother’s alchemy the circles are less obvious and are formed by the tattoo going around the arm. I don’t think these arrays would work if they were simply recreated on paper or any other surface as a spread; they are specifically designed to form a circle in this particular manner. 

That’s it for alchemy and alkahestry, at least for now. 


	13. Philosopher’s Stone(s)

Another thing that is used to explore humanity and ethics in FMA is the manga’s take on what is the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. However, I think it’s better to discuss the topic of the souls within Philosopher’s Stones in relation to souls in FMA in general, so here I’ll only look at the purely alchemical stuff. 

#### What we know about Philosopher’s Stones from the manga

The subject of the Philosopher’s Stone is brought up in the very first chapter of the manga, “The Two Alchemists”. When Ed and Al see Father Cornell demonstrating his “miracles” they notice how his performance seemingly disregards the law of equivalent exchange, which leads them to believe that Cornello is using a Philosopher’s Stone. Here we learn what the general perception of the Stone among alchemists is: 

> The Philosopher’s Stone, the legendary catalyst, the amplifier of all alchemical processes. 

Also, the chimera Ed has to fight was created using the Stone. I now wonder whether it’s a necessary thing for a successful chimera to be created, and if it’s so, does it mean that Shoe Tucker also had a Stone. He could have had one in possession, maybe he used it all up on Nina – after all, his lab was filled with different chimeras, so he wasn’t completely unsuccessful; the only reason he was considered a failure is because he couldn’t recreate a talking chimera, which got him his certification on the first place, without using a human for that. 

Edit: nope, he definitely didn't have a Stone, since he created his first chimera before he was a State Alchemist.

Another thing Cornello brings up is that a Philosopher’s Stone can help with a successful human transmutation. And this is where the ultimate goal of our main characters is revealed: they want the Stone to get their original bodies back. What I like here is Ed’s next line: that they are not sure if the Stone will be able to do that. I think it’s a small bit of foreshadowing – the Philosopher’s Stone is ultimately not the answer to the brothers’ problem, so Ed questioning its ability to help them here does pay off in the end of the series. 

And in the same chapter we see that the Philosopher’s Stone that Cornello has been using up to this point suddenly breaks in the middle of transmutation, causing a rebound. Because of this Ed doubts that it was the real thing – if the Philosopher’s Stone is a “pure substance”, how could it have broken like that? 

Finally, the chapter shows that the Philosopher’s Stone doesn’t require the use of a transmutation circle. Cornello doesn’t draw any, nor does he seem to have a pre-prepared circle like some of the State Alchemists. 

In chapter 8 “The Road of Hope” we learn that the government has been conducting experiments on the subject but a scientist named Tim Marcoh stole the research data and ran away with it. We also see that a Philosopher’s Stone is not literally a stone. Not only can it be a liquid, but it can turn from liquid to a squishy jelly-like form – another foreshadowing: 

> The Sage’s Stone…the Stone of Heaven…the Great Elixir…the Red Tincture…the Fifth Element. Just as there are many names for the Philosopher’s Stone, it might be not a stone at all. 

Dr Marcoh also reveals that the Stone in his possession is only experimental and imperfect, so no one knows when it will reach its limit and simply stop working. Ed recalls Cornello’s Stone and decides that that’s what the priest was using. He also speculates that the existence of an imperfect Stone is a proof that you can make the real thing, too. Having learned about Ed’s alchemical abilities, Dr Marcoh acknowledges that maybe the boy will be able to actually make a complete Stone, but refuses to share his data without going into too much detail. 

> Getting your original bodies back…The Stone shouldn’t be used for something so trite. No one will ever see my research. It’s the work of the devil. 

However, Ed’s words about “having already been through hell” make Dr Marcoh at least give him a hint about where the data could be found with the vague words about “truth within the truth”. 

Dr Marcoh’s fight with Lust also sheds some more light on the Philosopher’s stone. Turns out, Dr Maroch didn’t discover how to make Stones on his own, he was taught by the Homunculi. His escape didn’t change anything like he thought it would: the production of Stones didn’t stop. Lust suggests that Dr Marcoh figured out or at least was on his way of figuring out why the government conducts research on the Stones when they already know how to make them, and that was the reason why he ran away. 

In chapter 10 “The Philosopher’s Stone” Ed and Al crack the code from Tim Marcoh’s “1,000 meals for daily living” and realize that

> The main ingredient for the Philosopher’s Stone is a living human being. 

The thought is continued in chapter 11 “The Two Guardians”: 

> If what these documents say is true, then the main for the Philosopher’s Stone is a live human being. Not only that, it would take numerous human sacrifices to create one stone! 

That puts a damper on Ed and Al’s mood, to put it lightly. Still, a conversation leads Ed to recalling Dr Marcoh’s words about “truth within the truth”, so he tries to see if there is more to the issue of the Philosopher’s Stone than just the process of its making. Combining their knowledge of the ingredient for the Stone with the data on location of alchemical laboratories and the specifics of the country’s punitive system leads our heroes to thinking that the experiments with the Stones were most likely conducted in Laboratory 5. So naturally, despite Major Armstrong’s warning to not go to the lab, Ed and Al do it anyway and find out that their guess was correct. 

In chapter 38 “Signal to Strike” Lust reveals that the Homunculi have Philosopher’s Stones at their core. When Mustang creates an explosion the Stone creates a new body for her from scratch. And in the next chapter “Complications at Central” the Philosopher’s Stone breaks when she dies, the way Cornello’s stone broke in chapter 1. This is what makes me think that both Cornello’s and Dr Marcoh’s Stones are not really imperfect – all Philosopher’s Stones break when they lose their power. 

In chapters 52 “Lord of the Demon Lair” and 53 “Signpost of the Soul” another crucial bit of information is both shown (through Envy’s true form) and told (by King Bradley): a Philosopher’s Stone isn’t simply made of humans, it actually contains their souls. So now we know for sure why the Xingese characters were able to sense the presence of multiple humans within the Homunculi. Envy describes a Philosopher’s Stone like this: 

> More accurately, it’s a high-energy substance that’s created by extracting souls from human bodies and condensing it. The spirit and the physical body are nothing but by-products. 

However, it’s clear that the souls trapped within the Stones are not just energy. They are miserable and angry; they try to kill Ed (“die with us”, “live with us”) and, as Bradley tells Mustang, they fight for dominance if a stone is injected into a human’s blood stream, but in doing so they ruin and then recreate the body. Still, when it comes to Homunculi the Stones within them actually look like stones, and the bodies are simply built around them. Or that’s what it looks from outside. 

In chapter 54 “The Fool’s Struggle” we see Father blocking alchemical transmutations by simply tapping his foot. It’s shown that his action really has a country-wide effect: Hohenheim felt it all the way in the mountains on the borders of Amestris. We also learn that theoretically it’s possible to make a human-based Homunculus that actually retains the souls from the Philosopher’s Stone instead of burning them off until there’s only one left, like it happened with Wrath. And sure enough, when Father injects his Greed into Ling Yao, we can see the souls of the Xerxians starting to attack Ling’s own. In the next chapter “The Avarice of Two” it’s shown that Ling actually is fighting back, but is not destroying them. I wonder if the reason why this transmutation goes differently than Wrath’s is because Ling accepted Greed voluntarily and Greed just controlled the souls within his Stone to stop them from fighting since there’s no gain for him in becoming a mortal Homunculus if his ultimate goal is to rule the world. 

Chapter 67 “Burgeoning Borders” confirms the suspicions that Ed had and what Hohenheim, Scar’s brother, Dr Marcoh and Maes Hughes have already figured out on their own: there is a conspiracy to turn the population of the country into a giant Philosopher’s Stone. 2d Lt. Falman, a walking encyclopedia, gives the following names of places where major bloodsheds happened: 

July 1558 – The Riviere incident

October 1661 – Cameron civil war

February 1799 – Soapman incident in Fisk

March 1811 – The Wellesley incident

October 1835 – South City, the first southern border war

May 1911 – second southern border war

1914 – Liore

1914 - Pendleton

and, of course, 1908 – Ishvalan War of Extermination. 

After connecting these 9 dots on the map, Ed sees a transmutation circle. However, one of the points is vacant – Fort Briggs, which is where the next bloodshed is scheduled to happen. 

It’s also noticeable that the frequency of conflicts really changed through time. There’s over a 100 year gap between the first and the second and the second and the third conflicts, but there were two in 1914 with the third one already scheduled. If we take into account population growth patterns, it makes sense – causing a massive bloodshed is way easier then there’s enough population for that. 

And finally, in chapters 75 “The Last Day of Xerxes” and 76 “Shape of a Stone, Shape of a Man” we learn that Philosopher’s Stone can be fused with a human without turning them into a Homunculus – Hohenheim admits that that’s exactly what happened to him. 

Now it’s theory time! 

#### Why is there no consistency in transmutation circles for the Philosopher’s Stones? 

In chapter 11 we see the circle for the Philosopher’s Stone for the first time: a circle, a pentagon, another circle, another pentagon, and in the center one more circle with a pentagon inside; no runes, or at least no visible runes, the circle is pretty big after all; but there are 15 small circles in the spots where the pentagons have tangency points with the larger circles. 

In chapter 66 Ed says that the countrywide transmutation circle is identical to the one in laboratory 5, but it’s really not. There’s are still two pentagons but only one circle, which is why there are only 10 tangency points, not 15. 

However, I don’t think that Arakawa simply forgot what kind of circle she’d designed for the transmutation of a Philosopher’s Stone. In chapter 59 “The Immoral Alchemists” we see Laboratory 5 again, and the circle is identical to the one in chapter 11. Also, seems like not all of the tangency points are even needed for the creation of a Stone: 

In chapters 40 “Philosopher from the West” and 75 “The Last day of Xerxes” we see that the transmutation circle that was used in Xerxes had two circles and one pentagon. 

Why are the circles all slightly different? I personally think the discrepancies are justified because in each case the outcome is not really the same as in the other two. The circle that was used in Xerxes resulted in forming human Philosopher’s Stones; the circle from Laboratory 5 can create circles in their stone form. Amestrian countrywide transmutation circle didn’t just create a Philosopher’s stone, but opened the planet’s Gate in the process; granted, that only became possible because this time there were also five human sacrifices involved. So yeah, I think it would be strange to have the same circle yield a different result each time. 

Another point worth mentioning is that the outer five blood crests in the countrywide transmutation circle were created within the last six (!) years when it took almost 350 to create the inner five. This got me thinking: what if the Homunculi were initially planning on using the transmutation circle from Xerxes but after the pentagon was completed in 1835 they realized that it wouldn’t work for their current purpose, so they fashioned a new one that featured a second pentagon? The problem is, Hohenheim figured out the pattern that the Homunculi ended up using around 1904, and back then only the blood crests for the inner pentagon were actually completed. Does it mean that by studying alchemical texts Hohenheim predicted the Homunculi’s change of plans and the creation of another five blood crests? I mean, it’s not that far-fetched, there are a lot of examples of independent discoveries in science, so it is possible that Father and Hohenheim came to the conclusion that five blood crests wouldn’t be enough independently. I guess I should make it a triple discovery, since Scar’s brother came to the same realization around 1908 when the blood crests in the south border, Liore, Pendleton and Briggs hadn’t been created yet. And when the experiments in Lab. 5 started, another kind of transmutation circle was designed specifically to create Philosopher’s Stones in the red stone/liquid form without the need to fuse it with a human body so that it could be used for war efforts. 

Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it and sometimes circles are just circles. Could be that. 

#### What’s the deal with Dr. Marcoh? 

Dr Markoh’s motivation for documenting the process of making a Philosopher’s Stone and writing it in an alchemical code and then hiding it for good measure is contradictory, don’t you think? On the one hand, he doesn’t want to share his research, and that’s what he says to Ed. On the other hand, when he talks to Lust, he expresses hope that Ed will be able to figure out not just the secret of making the Philosopher’s Stone, but what the government and the Homunculi are trying to do with the country. In other words, he wants people to know about it, but at the same time he doesn’t. The reason for that is a conflict of personal gain and the greater good that Marcoh has to resolve: he is ashamed to have been involved into the production of Philosopher’s Stones, so he doesn’t want that to be revealed. It’s possible that he is also afraid that in the wrong hands the research could be used for making Philosopher’s Stones on the side, unrelated to governmental plans, and it would be his fault since he leaked the information. These are his reasons for hiding the data. However, he also suspects that the government is planning to do something with the Stones that will decide the fate of the whole nation, therefore he needs to inform someone on the threat. For years personal stakes prevented him from acting on his desire to share the research and have people know that something is going on in the country, but it took over his shame and guilt in the end, so he revealed the location of the data to Ed. 

#### Do you need a transmutation circle to use a Philosopher’s Stone? 

In chapter 1 we see Father Cornello performing transmutations without any circles using only the Philosopher’s Stone in his possession, even though it’s established that for any and all transmutations you need to have some kind of circle to guide the flow of energy from the power source. I tried to look at this issue in the chapter on Father Cornello, but couldn’t really come up with an explanation, so let’s update it. Kimblee has circles tattooed on his arms, Ed and Al use clap alchemy, so if the circle is required, it checks out for them. With Dr. Marcoh it’s unclear because we don’t see the transmutation, only hear accounts of it. What about those who can use the power of the Stone because they are a Stone themselves? Hohenheim and Father can transmute without any movement and the other Homunculi don’t do anything at all, the stone at their core repairs the damage made to their bodies automatically. Does that mean that both Izumi and Father are wrong and the circle is not a vital part of a transmutation? 

I think the answer depends on where the power source of alchemy is located. For regular transmutations you need a circle as a part of the chain of transmutation: earthen energy – the Gate – the mind – the circle – the matter. However, personified Philosopher’s Stones have the source within themselves, right? So there’s no need for them to draw the energy from some other remote place, e.g. from under the Earth, therefore the circle is not needed to guide that energy either. I think it works for all Philosopher’s Stones, not just the ones that are inside Hohenheim and Homunculi. Besides, if Father Cornello used a concealed Philosopher’s Stone, he wouldn’t be able to use different kinds of transmutations, because another rule of alchemy is that one type of array or a set of runes within the circle allows you to perform one specific type of transmutation. it’s different for alkahestry, but Cornello is an alchemist, not alkahestrist, so I believe that the Philosopher’s Stone working without circles is more plausible than Cornello having dozens of concealed Stones on his person so that he would be able to perform different kinds of transmutations when needed. So there you go guys: my verdict is that the Philosopher’s Stones do not require circles to provide energy for transmutations. 

I think the only time when a circle was really needed for a transmutation involving Philosopher’s Stones was Hohenheim’s countermeasure during the Promised Day. He put his Philosopher’s Stones outside of the five outer blood crests so that they wouldn’t be sucked up into Father’s Philosopher’s Stone during the countrywide transmutation. To perform transmutation within the area where a cluster of his Stones is located they wouldn’t need a circle. However, to connect the five places it would be necessary, and that’s what Hohenheim meant by having a circle formed by umbra. 

#### Why is the circle for destroying Philosopher’s Stones never used again? 

In chapter 79 “Bug Bite” Dr Marcoh uses a special circle to reduce Envy to his true true form of a small worm. It looks kind of like the countrywide transmutation circle, but there’s something in the middle, which I guess does the trick. My question is: why is it never mentioned again? And my own answer is: first, to use that circle you have to get close enough to the Homunculi to actually touch them, and that’s pretty tricky I would say. They managed to pull that off with Envy, but that’s because they had a plan and prepared a trap for him. Secondly, the only alchemists in their little party were Al and Scar; Al is obviously against destroying the Homunculi while Scar probably didn’t think it was necessary with his right hand of destruction. Thirdly, with Lust and Gluttony dead and Greed siding with the good guys during the Promised day there were only four Homunculi + Father left to fight. It couldn’t be used on Envy a second time from a narrative standpoint because Mustang burning Envy is an important character moment; it would be wasted against Wrath since he’s a mortal; Pride kind of was defeated in a similar manner anyway. So the only Homunculus against which the technique could have been used was Sloth. I guess you can safely call this circle a “cool one-off ideas that was never utilized again”. 

####  Does the Philosopher’s Stone circumvent the law of equivalent exchange? 

No, it doesn’t. The Philosopher’s Stone works precisely within the law of equivalent exchange, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to run out of power (souls) and break. It gives the illusion of creating something out of nothing, as seen, for example, in chapters 54 (Father growing out Al’s hand that was swallowed by Gluttony), 92 (Al growing out his hand and legs to fight Pride and Kimblee), and every time the Homunculi regenerate. What really happens is, of course, a very literal conversion of energy into matter: a soul disappears from the Stone but the energy becomes whatever the alchemist wants it to become. The real question here is how efficient it is. In regular transmutations the law of equivalent exchange means that the same amount of matter is transformed into the same amount of another kind of matter and the energy is the facilitator of the process. But if you are creating something with a Philosopher’s Stone it means that you spend some of the soul energy that is transformed into matter but you’ll need energy on top of that for the process to go as intended, right? That means that transmuting using the Philosopher’s Stone wastes more energy than regular transmutations. 

It also raises a question how much energy is stored in one soul and whether all of the souls within a Stone yield the same amount of energy. I’m not quite there yet to answer this question, maybe I’ll see into it when I reach the subject of souls. One thing can be said with absolute certainty: souls within the Philosopher’s Stones and in general are dividable. In chapter 77 “The Tables are Turned; a New Transmutation Circle” Ed uses his own soul as a Philosopher’s Stone to heal a lethal wound to his abdomen and assumes that this would probably reduce his lifespan by a few years. So he quite literally gives up a part of his soul for being able to at least not die right now. This scene therefore establishes that to perform a transmutation using a Philosopher’s Stone you don’t need to sacrifice a natural number of souls, so souls are not atomic and therefore can be measured in ways other than units. So technically there is a possibility that some souls have more energy than others; if Ed’s assumption is correct, it might be linked to their intended lifespan, but that would mean the existence of a Divine Plan or something like that in the world of FMA, and I have a feeling that Truth is not the kind of deity to have one.

Yeah, I don’t think I have anything else to say on the Philosopher’s Stones, at least on the alchemical side of things. 


	14. Human Transmutation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who’s finally found the time to write a chapter. Don’t you hate it when real life prevents you from publishing random stuff on the Internet?

Human transmutation is one of the most intriguing topics of FMA and there are tons of things to uncover about it. In this chapter I’ll try to explain my personal reasons for why you can’t bring people back from the dead, to look into the manga’s answer to why it’s impossible, and to discuss other issues concerning human transmutation. 

#### The breakdown of the proof that people do not come back to life in the manga

In Volume 11 Ed finds out that the thing that he and Al created during their human transmutation wasn’t Trisha, but some random guy. Right after that Ed declares it means that Al can be returned to normal. I have to admit, the first time I watched Brotherhood and read the manga I couldn’t really comprehend how he came to this conclusion, so I just decided to go along with it. But since I’m trying to get to the bottom of the things now, let’s have a look at the scene with Ed and Pinako in chapters 43 “River of Mud” and 44 “The Unnamed Grave”. 

> A dead person can never come back to life, no matter what we do. That’s the truth. Whether it’s the rules of alchemy or that it’s a sin that’s just how it is. <…> From that day until just now, this thing was a symbol of my despair. But now this will lead to new hope. Isn’t it ironic, granny? The answer was right here at the starting point all along. Al can be returned to normal! 

Ed’s reasoning seems really strange here. How does the fact that the person they created isn’t Trisha is any evidence that people can’t be brought back at all? And what has Al to do anything with it? Not very clear. However, there’s more. 

> This thing… I don’t know how… but I saw it move. It looked at me. It was a real human being, if only for a moment. I gave it life … and watched it die. It was a human being. It deserves … a grave. 

This scene demonstrates that at this point Ed doesn’t know yet that the body he and Al created was never alive. So it’s not that he is rejecting the possibility of creating humans through human transmutation; he only states that it can’t be used for resurrection. However, his line about Al being able to return to normal still seems premature – after all, Ed says that he needs to check some things first, so why is he so sure of that? 

The next part was omitted from Brotherhood: Ed asks Pinako if Trisha really was his and Al’s biological mother. After Pinako assuring him that there’s no doubt about that since she was the one who delivered them both, Ed says: 

> My information about the soul was correct, but I still failed. 

We know that when Ed and Al performed human transmutation they used various elements for the body and their own blood for the soul. But I have to ask: what were they trying to achieve by that? When Ed and Al add their blood to other ingredients in chapter 23 “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, Ed says: 

> Last but not least … part of our soul. 

Previously I just assumed that they thought the blood was necessary because it contained information about their mother’s soul in the form of their memories of her. Apparently, that’s not the case: if they thought they needed memories, it wouldn’t matter whether they were born from Trisha or from someone else, their memories would be genuine regardless of their true lineage. Besides, Ed himself says later that blood doesn’t contain memories at all, they are stored in the brain – that was one of his main arguments that Al’s body must be alive somewhere. Lastly, they didn’t want someone who looked and acted like Trisha, they were actually determined to bring her soul back and bind it to the body they were going to create from scratch. So I can see two reasons why they would think their blood was needed. 

Firstly, it would provide genetic information, so that the body would look like Trisha. After all, the ingredients they gathered were just basic elements that an average human body consists of, so without some “template” genes there wouldn’t be any guarantee that it would have Trisha’s appearance. Unless, of course, they didn’t actually care what their mother would look like as long as it was her soul in the body. Personally, I think that they did expect Trisha to look like herself after the transmutation, or Ed wouldn’t be so shocked upon discovering that the body’s hair was black, not chestnut (well, that and that the body they created was male). 

Secondly, it would provide information on the soul, but not in the form of memories. When Ed first suggests that they bring Trisha back in chapter 21 “The Brothers’ Secret”, he says that thing about humans consisting of body, spirit/mind and soul. I can actually see two lines of reasoning here. 

1) A body is connected to the soul. A part of a body is therefore also connected to the soul. Ed and Al are Trisha’s children and before they were born, they were literally a part of her body. If a part of a body is connected to a soul, their blood, which is a part of their bodies, which in their turns used to be a part of Trisha’s body, could be used to get her soul from the afterlife and bind it to the body they have created. 

2) A body is connected to the soul. It also means that it has information on the soul the body belongs to. A part of a body also has that information. Ed and Al are Trisha’s children and before they were born, they were literally a part of her body. Therefore their blood, which is a part of their body, is also a part of Trisha’s body, and has information about her soul. This information would be needed to indicate which soul is needed to be brought back. 

So Ed questioning his biological parentage actually makes sense: if Trisha wasn’t their mother, then it wouldn’t be surprising that his and Al’s blood couldn’t bring her back, right? Well …. Using their blood to provide genetic information still wouldn’t guarantee that the body would look like Trisha … which is basically what happened what with the body being a black-haired male instead of a chestnut-haired woman. Unless, that is, they thought that their mother would look like herself because the body would reflect the soul, so the blood was only used for soul data, not genetic data. After all, if the transmutation went successfully, using their blood for DNA data could result in the body looking like either of them, or their mother, or maybe any of their ancestors that passed down their genes to them. 

So, the conclusion I’ve come to so far: the fact that the body looks nothing like Trisha can either be a proof that human transmutation can’t resurrect people, or not mean anything at all. If Ed and Al, being Trisha’s biological children and therefore literally part of her body, used their blood solely for the purpose of binding her soul to the body and thought that it automatically will make it look like herself, then it can be considered a proof: the body doesn’t look like Trisha, because the soul in it wasn’t Trisha. But if they used their blood to also provide genetic information on Trisha’s body, then it doesn’t prove anything, because the body could end up looking like any of their ancestors, not just Trisha, and we can’t really prove that they didn’t have any black-haired relatives. 

When Ed saw that the body didn’t have his mother’s features, he thought this: if they did everything right and it still wasn’t Trisha, but someone else, then it means that you can create life, but it won’t be a person who has already died (Remember, at this point he doesn’t know that the reason the body moved was Al’s soul and still thinks that they created a living person with a seriously malfunctioning body). From this conclusion comes the second one: if a dead person’s soul can’t be brought back to life, yet Ed still managed to bind Al’s soul to the armor, it can only mean that Al didn’t die in the first place. That’s exactly what he says when explaining to Al and Winry why Al’s body must be alive somewhere. But this conclusion relies heavily on the first assumption that people can’t be resurrected. This is the reason why Ed asks if Trisha really was their mother – he needs to know whether the soul data was correct. Having heard the answer, he becomes convinced that in their case a person really didn’t come back from the dead. But even that is not enough to prove anything – after all, it can be a single case, right? So what Ed does next is call Izumi and ask her whether the child she’d transmuted was her child, or rather, looked like her child. And the answer he gets is

> After you called, I started researching Sig’s and my family trees. When I transmuted that child, I used a lock of my husband’s hair, a drop of my own blood and my child’s aches. But the hair and skin color of the child that was transmuted … could never have come from the two of us. 

I think this means two things. First, Ed and Al really did use their blood for both soul and genetic data, since Izumi seems to have done the same, using both her and her husband’s body parts to make sure that the baby would look like them. So Ed’s conclusion about people not coming back from the dead was a bit premature – they could have had some black-haired ancestors that would result in the body not looking like Trisha, even if the soul data was correct: the body they created could have hosted her soul and simply not have her appearance. Secondly, the fact that Izumi’s baby looked nothing like any of her or Sig’s ancestors means that it really wasn’t their child, but some random body. Can we call it a definite proof that people do not come back to life in FMA? Still not sure. If one case wasn’t enough to prove it, one more hardly makes a difference. Although, at this point in the manga it didn’t really matter to us anyway, because by the time Izumi called Ed and Al have already remembered that the only reason the body was moving was because Al’s soul was trying to find something to bond to after losing his own body. 

So, what is the manga’s answer on the possibility of resurrection? Well, I guess the it's in the quote that I’ve already used: 

> A dead person can never come back to life, no matter what we do. That’s the truth. Whether it’s the rules of alchemy or that it’s a sin that’s just how it is. 

What’s the catch? Well, it’s only an opinion expressed by our protagonist Ed that, might I add, was formed before he even examined all the evidence he could find. Am I satisfied with the answer being only an opinion? Actually, yes, for two main reasons. Firstly, whether resurrection is factually possible is not important to the narrative as a whole because the characters' actions are based on what they perceive as truth. Even if Ed is wrong and resurrection is possible, it wouldn’t change the plot because he doesn’t know that and therefore makes his decisions based on his belief that death is irreversible. Secondly, because it’s only an opinion it leaves a room for theorizing. Can it be that Ed actually is wrong and there’s evidence in the manga that it’s possible to resurrect people? 

#### My own take on resurrection through human transmutation

The general idea of what human transmutation is was revealed to us quite early on, in chapter 2 “The Price of Life”: bringing dead people back to life using alchemy. Now, I have to say, it isn’t really a definition of human transmutation, but rather the thing that first pops up to mind whenever someone speaks about it. The definition, coming from words “human” and “transmutation”, is actually creating human beings through means of alchemy; resurrection is technically only a subcategory of that when instead of producing a completely new human an alchemist tries to recreate someone who has died. At least, that’s what I get from Chapter 21 “The Brothers’ Secret” when Ed recites two things about alchemical theory: that humans consist of body, mind/spirit, and soul, and that there are theories that artificial humans called homunculi can exist. (Side note: I never really thought about it, but I think this part of the manga is what inspired the authors of FMA 2003 to create the version of the Homunculi’s origin that the show has, since them being parts of Father was not known at the time – in his speculations Ed basically lumps up homunculi and human transmutation together, even though in the manga verse they are two separate topics). So in alchemical theory human transmutation is a process that requires the following steps: 

1\. Create a physical body. There are actually several ways you can go about doing that. As far as I understood from the manga, while human transmutation as a concept is known to alchemists, there isn’t much information on how to perform it. This might be one of the reasons why it took years for Ed and Al to finish their theory of human transmutation (apart from them being self-trained children before Izumi took them under her wing, of course): there wasn’t enough information to go off of, the alchemical texts simply stated that it was possible but didn’t provide any instructions. At least two ways of creating the body are mentioned in the manga: when Ed and Al discuss this topic, Ed suggests keeping it simple and using an actual meat while Al thinks it’s better to figure out the body’s protein structure. Considering that in the end they end up creating the body from its elemental components, it seems they took Al’s route after all. Izumi claims to have used her child’s ashes and some of her and her husband’s tissue; since that is definitely not enough to create even a child’s body I assume that she just added those to the same elements that Ed and Al used in their transmutation, only in smaller proportions. Or she might have done something different entirely. 

2\. Bond a soul to the newly created body. Without this step the transmutation won’t be complete since a soul is a necessary part of any human. So to complete this step, we must understand the mechanics of soul binding. 

In chapter 11 “The Two Guardians” Ed and Al encounter two suits of armor that were animated exactly the same way Alphonse was – by having their souls bound to an object. It seems like this technique works mostly on metal objects, as the principle of the transmutation here is that the iron in the armor is bound to the iron in the blood, and blood is what binds the soul. While it is not stated in the manga, I think that the blood has to belong to the person whose soul is supposed to be bonded with the armor. The way I see it, the reason why blood has to be used in this particular type of transmutations is not just because of the iron being able to fuse with iron stuff, but also because it’s a part of someone’s body and therefore is linked to their soul. This is why I think that Ed using his own blood to bind Al’s soul to the armor wouldn’t work unless they were somehow connected on a spiritual level, which is what I tried to explain in my chapter on Amestrian alchemy. 

What does the necessity of binding a soul to a body mean to human transmutation? Well, first of all, it seems like it does boil down to being an attempt at resurrecting people instead of a broader topic of creating humans in general. The law of equivalent exchange states clearly that you can’t create something out of nothing. Since no one in the world of FMA knows what a soul actually is, there is no way of creating one artificially, so human transmutation as in “creating a person who has never existed” isn’t possible even of theoretical level, let alone practical. Since you can’t create a soul, you have to use an existing one, which leaves an alchemist with two options: using a soul of someone who is already dead, a.k.a resurrection, or using a soul of someone who is alive, a.k.a transferring souls from one body to another, and both are impossible for the same reason: the connection between body and soul. The lore of FMA states that a soul is always drawn to its body. The reason while soul binding to metal objects works is because those suits of armor have the blood of a person who is bonded to them. But if you create a body from scratch and try to bind a soul to it, your attempt will inevitably fail because this new body has never belonged to the soul you’re trying to bond. The fact that both the Elrics and Izumi use something from themselves in the transmutation changes nothing, because in the process of creating the body the ingredients are rearranged. Even if we acknowledge that Ed and Al’s blood counts as part of Trisha since they used to be a part of her, even if Izumi did use her child’s ashes, even if any of them managed to create a functioning body, that body would be completely 100% new stuff, so the soul would never bond to it because it would not recognize it as its own. 

Up until this point I’ve only looked at the type of human transmutation when someone tried to alchemically create a body, and my verdict is that it’s impossible due to the connection between body and soul. I also didn’t even bring up the third part of a human being, which is the mind/spirit. So what if you tried to resurrect a recently deceased human whose body is still intact? It should be possible, right – the soul wouldn’t have a problem binding to the body it actually belonged to, so what’s the problem here? I think the answer is this. A person’s death refers to brain death. As I wrote several times in this chapter alone, the soul is connected to the body through mind/spirit, which has to be located somewhere, and I personally believe that that somewhere is the brain. If the brain is dead, which is what happens when someone dies, there is nothing to connect the body and the soul, so the binding, again, won’t happen. So there you go: based on the lore of the manga, I don’t think that any kind of resurrection is possible in FMA. 

Last note on this one: in the breakdown of the manga’s confirmation of people not coming back to life I said that Ed and Al used their blood not only as a part of Trisha’s body to bind her soul to, but for genetic information so that the body would look like her. I should note that I suppose that’s the reasoning Ed and Al had and that I personally don’t think that would work. In the alchemy chapter I said that alchemists in FMA work on the level of atoms and their basic components like electrons and protons, but here’s the trick: it sounds easy enough if you talk about inorganic matter like rocks and metals. But working with organic matter is a whole other deal. Obviously, I’m not an authority on this kind of stuff since I barely remember whatever I was taught in high school, but I do know that it would be infinitely harder. From all those elements that Ed and Al have prepared for the transmutation they would first need to form organic molecules that would form sells that would form tissue and organs. And considering that alchemy is magic (it is), and that they did a lot of research on human body, let’s suppose that they could pull that off. After all, the body they created did have some tissue and a skeleton and probably even some organs; it obviously wasn’t functional, but they still succeeded in creating organic matter from inorganic. Ed and Al were able to do that because they read the books, so they knew what bones and tissue consisted of. But pretty much everything about the characteristics of a human body is dictated by the DNA, and that’s where using Ed and Al’s blood as a source of genetic information would be pointless. 

Like I already said, the process of creating a body from scratch would require all the components for it, including Ed and Al’s blood, to be rearranged. They would have to start with elements, arrange them into all kinds of organic molecules, including DNA. Now, let’s assume that the level of knowledge about DNA in FMA is close to the current one – after all, the world of FMA in general is a weird mix of early 20th century and modern society and is ahead of our reality in some ways. While they would know what DNA consists of, I don’t think there was a way for them to create the one that would describe Trisha Elric’s body, from her appearance to her bodily functions. The farthest that the modern science progressed in terms of artificially creating DNA from scratch is a bacteria DNA. So if we get into more real-life science-y stuff, the most probable explanation for why the body was 1) so damaged and 2) definitely not Trisha is this: Ed and Al actually succeed in creating a human DNA using the information from the books. But since they didn’t know how to recreate Trisha’s genes specifically, they ended up with a random human DNA that described a black-haired male and was really damaged, which is why the body turned out to be a monstrosity that didn’t even look human. 

So my final-final verdict on human transmutation as resurrection: it is cannot be performed. Even if we disregard all the real-life science, the lore of the manga makes it absolutely impossible by introducing the idea that a human consists of three parts that are the body, the mind/spirit, and the soul. While this is only an alchemical theory, the very fact that souls exist in the world of FMA confirms it. And these three components are not random, they kind of go together. A specific soul is bonded to a very specific body – the one the human was born with. When that body is lost to death, the soul has nothing to bond to, because its vessel is uninhabitable anymore, so it goes to whatever afterlife there is in the world of FMA, which is the reason why you can’t bind a recently deceased person’s soul to their body. And any attempt at recreating a body through alchemy also won’t accomplish anything, because even if you manage to create a copy of someone you want to resurrect, it’s not be the original body, so the soul simply won’t be drawn to it either. 

#### Successful human transmutation

As I already stated in this chapter, when people think about human transmutation, both in the manga and in the real world, they first think about bringing people back to life. However, in Chapter 53 “Signpost of the Soul” Ed makes a crucial discovery: human transmutation is possible and it has nothing to do with resurrection. 

Let’s talk about transmutation circles a bit. The circle Ed, Al and I guess Izumi used in their failed attempts was simply not enough for a successful human transmutation. We don’t see it clearly, the best look that you can get is this: 

My guess is that this particular circle is used to deconstruct and reconstruct a human body. But like I said, this circle alone is not enough. In Chapter 53 the complete circle for a successful human transmutation looks like this:

I was worried a bit that there might be a slight chance of continuity error between this circle and the one Ed used in the final chapter “The Journey’s End”, so I checked that one too and they are indeed the same: 

As you can see, in its center there’s, in fact, the same circle that Ed and Al have used (I mean, obviously – after Ed had learned the Truth he said his formula was correct; besides, it’s not like he knows any other human transmutation circles anyway, so he uses the one he is familiar with, and since it actually works it means that this circle is the correct one), but that’s just the center. The rest of it is the circle that turned all the population of Xerxes into a giant Philosopher’s Stone. Luckily, in Chapter 53 there are a lot of details explaining why Ed thinks that the circle for a successful human transmutation is the combination of the two: 

> The sun represents the soul. The moon is the alchemic symbol that represents the spirit. Stone is the symbol for the physical body, and the body is represented by mural itself. That mural from Xerxes that this shard is from … it’s a summoning circle for human transmutation. The missing piece, which would serve as the base of the circle, is an ordinary human being. 

In this scene Ed is trying to find a way out of Gluttony’s stomach, and his plan is to perform human transmutation on himself, a living human, using the logic of “water to water” – instead of deconstructing and then reconstructing himself in a different way, which is what you do when turning coal into gold, he is going to deconstruct and reconstruct himself without changing anything. Ed hopes that because he is performing human transmutation, the real Gate of Truth will open and they can go through it to the reality; and what do you know, that’s exactly what happens. However, when Ed goes through the Gate, he does so alone, even though Ling and Envy also entered the circle. This moment, for me at least, confirms that all sentient beings have individual Gates of Truth. We know that alchemists do, and in the end of the manga we see Father’s Gate, but then again, he’s also an alchemist. However, Ling, who is an ordinary human, and Envy, who is an ordinary Homunculus, somehow make it to the reality, too, even though they didn’t go through Ed’s Gate, and that’s because they went each through their own. 

Also, notice that Truth doesn’t show up even though someone opened the Gate. The reason is clear: Truth appears whenever someone doesn’t pay the toll for going through his Realm and seeing the Truth. Since Ed uses some of the Xerxian souls from Envy’s Philosopher’s Stone as a toll, there is no need for Truth to appear before any of the three. 

This actually explains the problem I had with Hohenheim being one of the sacrifices. I always wondered how come he has seen Truth when has never performed human transmutation. The answer is – he hasn’t. The circumstances in which Father and Hohenheim opened their respective Gates of Truth were similar to the ones here: they had a million souls to pay the toll, so Truth never showed up. This is why Father doesn’t recognize Truth in the final chapter of the manga, even though he clearly knows that there is this creepy dude who hands out punishments right and left – he literally has not seen the guy before, and neither has Hohenheim. They both know about Truth, but they have never met him. I do think that both of them have seen the Truth though (the alchemical information, not the deity); Envy and Ling probably have, too, but since these two are not alchemists, that information is pointless to them – a mere exposure to the Truth would hardly instantly turn them into alchemic prodigies. 

BTW, the logic that allowed Ed to perform a successful human transmutation – transmuting himself – is the primary reason why I don’t think that trying to explain all the crazy stuff from FMA with real-life science would work. My DNA rant suggests that there is no way Ed could have reconstructed himself exactly the way he was down to the last cell of his body. That’s why I think that using the lore and worldbuilding is preferable when you try to determine whether something is a plot hole/inconsistency/whatever. Like I said, alchemy is science to the people in the world of FMA, but magic to us, so trying to find a real-life explanation for everything might sometimes ruin the story for you. It’s still a lot of fun to do though;) 

#### Mustang’s human transmutation

Speaking of using the lore to explain stuff: the way Mustang’s human transmutation was handled in chapter 102 “Before the portal” feels way off. Pride draws the circle that looks nothing like the one Ed is using – it does have a pentagram, but no central circle, the one Ed and Al used in their failed attempt and which Ed later called the missing piece of a complete human transmutation circle. Pride is also not an alchemist, and I’m sorry, but I can’t see how consuming the knowledge of some other alchemist turns you into one. The Homunculi say that the Gold-Toothed Doctor is their “material”, as in the components for transmuting a human. This is the one thing so far that does check out, because you have to transmute someone, and living humans count as material. 

Concerning Mustang’s blindness: when Ed counters Father’s reasoning about Truth’s justice, he says Truth is wrong because Roy was forced into performing the transmutation, but that’s only because Ed wasn’t there when it happened and relies on what Pride tells him. The thing is, Mustang wasn’t forced to perform a transmutation – he didn’t do anything at all. You can even say he was also material – he was within the circle, and that’s the place where you put whatever you’re going to transmute; the one who actually performed the transmutation and therefore should be punished is Pride. Wait … I think I understand now why “forcing” someone to perform human transmutation is dangerous. There is a chance that Pride did have an encounter with Truth, and his punishment was the damage to his vessel – apart for the Philosopher’s Stone, this is the only thing he has to lose, since unlike the rest of the homunculi, Pride doesn’t have an actual body, so his vessel is a single item. I do find it hard to determine what would be the meaning of this punishment. The best thing I can think of is that the fear of losing his original vessel forced Pride to look for a human vessel, casting away his Homunucus pride. Could Truth have known that something like that was going to happen and devise his punishment accordingly? As for Mustang losing his sight, it probably can be explained if we consider everything we know about opening the Gate (or not). 

That’s it for my thoughts on human transmutation, at least for now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little weird place to stop, but I want to examine the process of opening the Gate of Truth and also the link between human transmutation and the creation of Philosopher’s Stones separately, except I have no idea when that will happen.


End file.
